


Coming Home

by Narsil



Series: The Raven [4]
Category: Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon - All Media Types, Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Child Abuse, Crossover, Ranma-chan, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-20 14:29:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 26
Words: 79,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2432168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narsil/pseuds/Narsil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a year since Raven, with the help of her mothers and the rest of the Titans, sent her father Trigon to his long-delayed just reward. Now that she's finally satisfied that the damage inflicted on her mind and soul has healed, it's time for her to keep the promise she made in her previous life as Ranma and search out the reincarnated Akane. But even as she reforges old relationships and meets new allies, there is an ancient evil stirring in the shadows. Ranma and Akane aren't the only ones living new lives, and those past lives come with enemies ... and duties...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ancient Memories

Daria, Princess of Hades, threw her arm across her eyes as the early morning sun of a Mediterranean summer coming through the bed chamber’s east windows finally reached her face. She desperately tried to sink back into slumber, and of course just drove herself into full wakefulness in the process. Whether she liked it or not, her day had started.

Grumbling to herself about the late nights and early mornings of summer, she sat up and rubbed at her face for a moment, ignoring the blanket that had slipped down about her waist to reveal her naked torso. Instead, she gazed down at the snoring woman sharing the bed with her for a few moment, smiling softly, before reaching over and tapping the sleeper on the nose. “Wakey wakey, sleepy,” she murmured.

Her bedmate growled and turned away from her, bunding the blanket about her shoulders. “Don’ wanna.”

Daria’s grin turned mischevious, and with one smooth grab and yank she stripped the blanket away, leaving the Queen of Crete naked to the cool morning air.

Celene leaped off the bed with a shriek, grabbing a robe from atop a nearby chest and wrapping it around her before glaring at the now laughing Daria. “Not funny,” she muttered with a pout.

“You know, Celene, you’re right,” Daria replied, sobering for a second before grinning widely. “It was hilarious!” She ignored her now-pouting bedmate and rose from the bed herself to stride naked over to pick up a second robe and wrap it about her.

Celene came up behind her and and wrapped her in a hug. “We could go back to bed....” she murmured, voice sultry, and Daria shuddered at the feel of warm breath on cool skin before shaking her head.

“No, today’s the Dance of the Bulls. Besides, there’s no better way to maintain your motherly authority than to be alert and at your best when your daughter comes stumbling in all rumpled from her latest conquest, and if we go back to bed you won’t be either alert _or_ at your best.”

Celene sighed. “Well, there _is_ that,” she agreed before reluctantly releasing her lover and turning toward the doorway that led to the bathing facilities, where servants would be waiting to oil and scrape them both free of love sweat before a hot bath. As they walked along, she mused, “But in this case it won’t be her ‘latest conquest’. Since the Athenian contingent arrived for training, her sole bed partner has been Prince Alexander.”

“Really? She’s _really_ restricting herself to a single man?” Daria stared at her lover walking beside her before smiling broadly. “Well, we’ll have to hope he performs well during the Dance, then, we could _use_ a dynastic link to Athens.”

“True,” Celene agreed, “fleets and armies can take us only so far. We need to forge links with the mainland cities, bring them into the fold.” She paused to lean on a window edge, looking north out across the forest filling Knossos’s harbor, masts of the warships, the Cretan fleets gathered here and at other cities for the festivities. “It’s going to take a _long_ time to really civilize them,” she mused. “Generations.”

Daria took her hand and gently tugged her away from the window and toward the baths. “We have time, and your daughter will have even more of it. So let’s get ready, I want to see her man.”

/\

Sitting in the Queen’s Box, Daria smiled appreciatively at the spectacle below her as Celina, Princess of the Moon, spun off the back of the charging bull into the arms of Alexander running along behind it. The two teenagers were dressed solely in the loinclothe that was customary for the dancers, and by now the skin of all six Cretan princesses and the Hellene princes partnering them was coated with sweat-stuck dust.

 _That certainly helps the older Hellenes focus on the skill involved rather than jiggling pairs of young breasts_ , Daria thought wryly. Of course, that also meant that some of them were attempting to discreetly ogle the women in the audience — and those women’s dresses designed to expose the breasts they supported. It was always amusing for the Princess of Hades, watching outsiders deal with the public display of the source of milk that symbolized why women had the right to rule.

“I don’t see your sister among the spectators,” Celene said, without turning toward her advisor. Her eyes were fixed on her daughter. “She wasn’t at the banquet last night, but I thought she might simply have arrived late.”

“You mean avoiding all the barbarians she loathes so much,” Daria replied, before shaking her head with a sigh. “No, she’s still immured on our estate, sulking. She didn’t take it very well when the Council unanimous rejected her proposal that we break off all contact with the Hellenes ‘to avoid contamination’.”

A gasp from the audience drew Daria’s attention back to the arena, just in time to see one of the other princesses tossed off a bull’s horn, black hair whipping about as she spun out of control, blood spattering from her bare stomach as she flew.

Then Celina was there, breaking away from her own run at her bull to snatch her ritual sister out of the air, spinning to kill Psykhe’s momentum while staying on her feet. She gathered the younger girl up into her arms and sprinted for the entrance to the arena even as the bull turned to follow its victim — and Alexander and another of the Hellene princes and Cytheria, Princess of Aphrodite, were suddenly there, rolling and dodging, distracting it from its prey.

Of course, in the process they had had to break away from _their own_ bulls, and the audience jerked to its feet as the Dance shattered into chaos, bulls charging at any target of opportunity, dancers looking around wildly for bulls that could come from any direction — one dancer actually leaped up and _ran across the backs of three bulls_ to escape the one coming after her. A boy was hooked and thrown, but managed to twist out of the way of the horn tip, he’d escape with just bruises....

Chaos for everyone but Daria. For the Queen’s chief advisor, as soon as disaster had struck it had been as if time had slowed to a crawl as her awareness expanded, making her hyper-aware of every move of every person around her as the audience slowly rose to its feet, and in the arena the way young Celina _almost_ missed catching her ritual sister, _almost_ tripped over her lover’s foot, was _almost_ brushed by a horn as the bull twisted to follow her ... almost-disaster after almost-disaster and Daria could see exactly what needed to be done to avoid every last one of them and she was stuck up in the Queen’s Box with the audience below her in the way and even if she had a clear run she wouldn’t be in time — and then Celina was at the gate passing her injured friend off to a priestess to be rushed to the healer, before turning back to try to salvage the Dance.

And Daria staggered as time resumed its normal pace and the roar of the crowd hammered her ears. The Queen caught her elbow to steady her, then slipped her arm around her lover’s waist as she started to shake, whispering in her ear, “Hold on for just a little while longer, until this travesty is over. You’ll have some time to rest before we salvage what we can.”

/\

An exhausted Princess of Hades lay down on her side on her banquet couch, fighting to keep from just flopping onto her back and surrendering to the slumber Hypnos would instantly bring. Celina had made a valiant effort to salvage the Dance, and had actually done a half-decent job. She’d managed to lead the dancers in guiding the bulls back into the required pattern, and had even managed to improvise around being one princess short. Daria couldn’t be more proud of the Queen’s Heir. Both Daria and the Queen had been busy throughout the rest of the day trying to sell that truth to their people and the visiting Hellenes.

Unfortunately, that truth didn’t keep the break in the Dance from _almost_ being the worst kind of omen. All it was missing was the Princess of Cronus dying of her wound — and the healers weren’t exactly hopeful.

Still, between her and the Queen they’d managed to calm things down to the point that everyone was jittery, instead of panicking out of fear that the Goddess was angry or would turn her back on them. _And we’ll have to do it all over again, tomorrow_.

The Queen plopped down on Daria’s couch with a weary sigh, then pulled her legs up and stretched out on her side, back to Daria. Daria circled her free arm around Celene’s waist and pulled her back against her, pressing her bare breasts against Celene’s back. She whispered in her lover’s ear, “Not that I mind, but this’ll make it difficult to eat.”

Celene sighed. “I know, I can’t stay.” Her eyes roamed over the other couches circling the indoor fish pool — and their mostly male occupants politely ignoring the pair. “I need to make the round, make nice with the various ambassadors. I just want to snuggle a little, first. Can you make sure some food is sent to Celina and the other princesses? They’re at Psykhe’s bedside.”

“Of course I —”

The banquet hall seemed to shake as a massive roar of thunder hammered at the palace, and for a second Daria thought that an earthquake had struck. But then the wall of sound passed, and ... the evening light was dimming?

Celene rolled off the couch to her feet and dashed for the nearest window, Daria right behind her, and the two stared north at a rising column of black smoke shot through with streaks of red, the smoke spreading out across the sky. In a flashing instant, Daria knew exactly where her sister was. “That’s Thera!” she gasped.

“Thera? No, it can’t be,” Celene insisted, “that volcano is quiet, held so by the gods so long as our seals over the portal to the demonic realm ... hold....”

The two exchanged glances, then Daria’s eyes fell to the forest of masts in the harbor as her mind raced, visualizing an image of Thera to the north of Crete, ripples racing out and hammering across Crete’s north shore — and all those fleets in the harbors as their crews celebrated the Dance. “No chance,” she whispered even as for the second time that day time again seemed to slow. No chance that any of the crews could be gathered in time to make way, get the ships out of the harbor; no chance that they could warn any of the other cities ... and now, no chance that Crete would be able to civilize the Hellenic barbarians. Her mind clicked through the figures: balances of power, resources available to Crete and the Hellenes, relative morale, and she felt nauseous at the answers she was getting back — Cretan dominance of the eastern Mediterranean was finished and within centuries, perhaps decades, the Hellenes would be landing armies of their own on Crete to sack the cities that had no walls because Crete had had the Fleet that was about to die in its harbors.

And that didn’t take into account the demonic forces that had been unleashed on the world, beside which the erupting volcano itself was but an ember.

 _First things first_ , Daria thought as time again snapped back to normal. She turned to Celene, to find her friend still staring at the mounting column of ash. Speaking loud enough for her voice to carry to the rest of the room’s occupants, she said, “My Queen, there will be a wave coming like none seen since the Flood of ancient legend. You must order everyone to seek high ground, as high as possible. I do not know how soon the wave will arrive, but perhaps we can save most of the city.”

Celene turned to stare at her for a long moment, then gave a jerky nod. “Of course.” She turned and started snapping orders to the servants in the room (including sending one servant to alert her daughter and the other princesses of what was happening), and Daria turned back to the window to gaze for a moment at the smoke and ash spreading across the sky — mostly east, thank Zephyr, but more than enough coming their way to add to the disaster.

But her gaze shifted to where the volcano was hidden below the horizon. She could only hope that her sister’s death had been as quick as it must have been brutal — if not from heat or asphyxiation, from the demons escaping their prison. Tears streaking her cheek, she whispered, “Pandora, what have you done?”

/oOo\

Setsuna, as she was named in her current life, opened her eyes to stare up at her hotel room’s ceiling visible in the early morning light seeping around the black-out curtain, then sighed and sat up in her bed. _That_ dream again, it was _never_ good when she revisited the day her world ended.

She wiped at wet cheeks, then rose and grabbed her robe before sitting at the desk where her personal — and secured — laptop sat and booted it up. She had a lot of research to do.

/\

“Jake, I’m going to have to miss the Council meeting,” Setsuna said into the cell phone she was holding to an ear with one hand as she stuffed clothes into a suitcase with the other.

 _“Aw, Set-chan, not again!”_ Setsuna grimaced at the hated pet-name. _“You’re the last of the First, the Council needs your guidance and special insight, and you don’t get many chances to leave Japan. We need your input on several ques —”_

“Jake, I had the Dream again last night.”

 _“Oh.”_ There was a pause, then Jake sighed. _“Japan again?”_

“What do you think?”

 _“Right.”_ Jake sighed again. _“All right, I’ll pass the word to the rest of the Council. Good hunting.”_

“Thanks, maybe next year we can hold the meeting in Japan.” Setsuna sat on her suitcase to get it closed enough for the latch to catch. “Now I have a flight to catch.” Hitting the button to break off the call, she slipped the phone into a pocket of her laptop bag, levered her suitcase off of the bed and onto its wheels before pulling out its extended handle, and snatched up her jacket and laptop bag before heading for the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, a brand-new story dealing with Ranma/Raven, and she doesn't even show up in the first chapter! That's actually a longstanding tradition, David Weber does it all the time (of course, since he writes _books_ you can turn the page and start the next chapter....). Still, the next chapter has Raven.
> 
> And yes, this is a _very_ "alternate history" version of the Sailor Senshi. I hope you enjoy reading about the different take as much as I've enjoyed dreaming it up.


	2. Trail of the Survivor

Raven hovered several feet above the roof of Titan Tower, the pale, red-haired young adult sitting in the lotus position that she usually used for meditation. She wasn’t meditating, though, simply watching as on the far side of Jump City across the bay the hills slowly faded into existence — first as mere hints of their presence as much from the absence of stars than anything else, then flat solid black silhouettes, then slowly taking shape as the morning light brightened. After she’d returned from her weeks with her mothers, she had gotten in the habit of being on top of the Tower to greet the sun as it rose whenever she had the opportunity. Partly, that was simple delight in the extra time she had, now that she no longer needed to spend hours in near-daily meditation to suppress her ‘father’s’ taint. But also partly —

“I love sunrise — the promise of a new day, anything’s possible.”

Raven glanced at Robin out of the corner of her eye as he came up beside her and repeated what he’d said to her at the dawn of the day that Trigon tried to claim the Earth as his. She’d known Robin was coming, of course, his usual calm confidence a balm to her empathic sense, and now she refocused on the dawn spreading across the hills and gave her half of what over the past year had become their own personal ceremony: “You’re right. It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day.” The exchange was always the same, whether it was as beautiful a summer’s day as this one promised to be, or the beginning of a sleet storm spitting into their numb faces. After they had managed to kill the demon that had given her half her soul and with her adopted grandparents’ help restored the world he had transformed, _every_ day was beautiful.

The two continued to watch until the sun was half up over the horizon, then Robin turned to her. “Are you up for a spar before breakfast?”

“You’re on!” Raven replied with a fierce grin.

/\

Raven dropped and kicked up as Robin sailed over her, her foot smacking into his leading leg that would have knocked the breath out of her if it had connected. But there was no chance of that, and she briefly wondered what he’d thought, using a move suitable to blind or immobilized targets. _Very_ briefly, as the Boy Wonder used the upwards momentum of her kick to spin in the air. She barely managed to shift her head to one side of avoid a swinging fist, rolled away as both of his feet slammed down where she had been lying (grateful not to be wearing her cape), then caught his follow-up kick on her crossed arms over her face.

Slipping her crossed wrists under his ankle before he could yank it back, she pushed _up_ , and her ankle-booted foot slammed into his midsection even as he began to drop rather than fight for balance.

But he again rode the force of her kick, flipping away for distance, and when she charged forward he caught her with a leg sweep that knocked her off her feet and his second foot caught the arm that was about to stop her fall. She slammed down on the mat, _hard_ , and when she blinked her vision clear it was to the sight of a green glove-covered fist hovering right in front of her nose.

“Well, _damn_ ,” she said with a sigh, “you win again. Almost a year, and I _still_ can’t beat you more than one time in five in a no-powers spar.”

“Hey, one in five is doing really well,” Robin replied as he rose from his knees and offered her a hand up. “I’m actually surprised how fast you’re improving, I’ve been training most of my life.”

 _So did I, the first time around_ , Raven thought as she and Robin walked over to where towels and water bottles were waiting. The first time around she remembered, anyway. What with the whole reincarnation thing she must have had any number of lives, the ones that had made Ranma constitutionally incapable of admitting defeat, but she only remembered two. She chuckled at the thought, then shook her head when Robin glanced at her. _Right,_ only _two. Most people have to settle for one_. She grabbed up her towel and water bottle, wiped the sweat from her face, then rolled the bottle along her forehead — still cold from the fridge.

Robin did the same, then guzzled down half his bottle, then nonchalantly said, “I agree, Jinx is the best choice as your replacement — she’s the right age, and while her relationship with Kid Flash will keep her honest the adrenaline addiction that pushed her into the mercenary business means she won’t stay satisfied working in a jewelry store; best to get her on a team that can put her talents to use and give her the excitement she craves. So when are you leaving? You _are_ leaving, right?”

Raven’s water bottle dropped from suddenly loose fingers and bounced on the mat as she stared in shock at her leader. “You ... I ... you ... we ... How did you _know?_ ”

Robin shrugged. “With the number of shapeshifters out there no security is _really_ perfect, so when the more sensitive files are accessed through the Tower’s computer terminals I automatically get flagged while security scans the location of the terminal to verify the user’s identity. Which means that I’ve been watching over the past week as you’ve searched through our personnel database, and saw how you kept going back to Jinx’s file. Add in the way you’ve been a little more eager than usual to spend time just hanging out with the team ...” He shrugged again.

“And why am I only now hearing about those security features?” Raven asked as she stooped to pick up the water bottle, buying time as her mind raced, trying to figure out how to handle the sudden situation. Not that she’d have been able to put off telling everyone much longer....

Robin grinned. “There are all sorts of ways to get security details out of you — mind reading, hypnotism, others ... admittedly, many of them are less likely to work on you than the rest of the team. But you can’t spill what you don’t know. So, _are_ you leaving?”

Raven sighed and nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid so. I’ll let everyone know — and why — after the morning training.”

/oOo\

“No! You _cannot_ leave!” Starfire shouted, the orange-skinned alien floating up off of Robin’s lap in her agitation, before he pulled her back down. “You are my first female friend! My _best_ female friend! With whom will I practice the calm of meditation if you are not here?”

“What she said,” Terra said from the couch where she sat next to Beast Boy, his arm across her shoulders. “Not the meditation or best friend part, but we’d really miss you when it comes to the magic mojo.”

Raven, again hovering off the ground in the lotus position in front of the huge flat screen TV in the common room, looked over at Cyborg where he sat in the chair specially reinforced to handle his weight. The Black half-man/half-machine shrugged. “What they said. Why the sudden exit?”

“It isn’t sudden,” Raven replied, “I just didn’t want to spoil the fun when there’s nothing anyone can do about it. I just ... have some unfinished business in Japan. Now that Trigon’s dead and my mind’s no longer fractured, it’s time to deal with it.” She reached up to run her fingers through her fiery, shoulder-length hair. (She’d been right, that there wasn’t any genetic reason for the red highlights in her hair after Trigon’s defeat, and as her fractured mind had healed that red had spread until it was the same bright, fiery red as Ranma’s female form.)

“So how can we help and how long will you be gone?” Beast Boy asked. “I need someone besides Tara to tell me my jokes are funny.”

“Like that will ever happen,” Raven scoffed, “Tara’s just biased.” She smiled briefly as the blonde girl giggled and snuggled up closer to her green boyfriend, then sobered. “And I don’t know if I’ll ever come back, except to visit.”

Silence slammed down, and the rest of the team stared at her in shock until Robin gently shifted Starfire off his lap to sit beside him with his arm around her waist. “Why don’t you tell us what’s going on?” he quietly suggested.

“Right.” Raven had been thinking about (and fearing) this conversation for months, and now she said, “Robin, you spent time training in the Orient, did any of your senseis ever mention a Japanese martial artist named Saotome Ranma?”

“The name sounds familiar.” He frowned thoughtfully as he combed through his memories of the training trip years earlier, then nodded. “Yes, one of them did. He thought I was too obsessed with my training, and used Ranma and his fiancées and his eventual death as an example of what can happen if you don’t have proper balance in your life.”

“Not exactly what I’d intended but it’s nice to be remembered for _something_ ,” Raven said with a wry smile. Her smile turned into a grin at all the dumbfounded expressions. “Yes, that was me.”

“Dude, you were a guy!?” Beast Boy demanded.

“Raven shrugged. “I imagine I’ve been a ‘guy’ any number of times.” Smiling slyly, she added, “Probably as many times as you’ve been a girl.”

“Oooh, yuck!” Beast Boy exclaimed, and suddenly found himself the angry focus of the other two girls in the room.

Terra carefully removed her boyfriend’s arm from around her shoulders. “Do you have a _problem_ with girls?” she demanded.

Raven was hard put to keep from laughing at her _prankster_ friend’s desperate denials accompanied by much handwaving. _Mischief managed_ , she thought, remembering one of the book series she’d read over the past year. _Later I’ll have to let him know that he really shouldn’t play with a girl’s shower head._

“You can teach Gar the error of his ways later,” Robin called out. A still-glaring Starfire and Terra took their seats (Starfire’s green eyes were actually _smoldering_ , though Raven’s suppression of her laughter became even harder at the self-satisfaction both girls were radiating), and the Boy Wonder continued, “So that’s why your hand-to-hand has improved so quickly — Sensei said that Ranma was probably the best of his generation, you’re practicing what you remember.”

“More or less,” Raven agreed, “though there are issues. As Ranma my ki reserves were huge, and the style I was creating depended on that. Now my ki is essentially at civilian level, and I’m not going through the decade plus of abuse it took to build up my reserves that fast again. You know how I’ve been incorporating my powers into what I can salvage but I’m simply not fast or durable enough.”

“Still, you’re on the right track,” Robin mused. “Since you’re headed for Japan anyway, I’ll give you Ono-sensei’s contact information. He _did_ have some good things to say about you — about Ranma — in spite of using ... you as a negative example.”

Raven stiffened. She asked, “Ono? _Tofu_ Ono?”

“Yes.” Robin’s gaze sharpened. “You knew him?”

“Oh, yes, Doc operated a clinic most of my time in Nerima,” a stunned Raven agreed absentmindedly, as her mind flashed through some of the more ... intimate (and as brief as she could manage) scenes she’d accidentally caught Kasumi and Nabiki in with the mirror her grandfather had gifted her. Yes, she’d accept Doc Tofu’s contact information with a grateful smile, memorize it, then torch the paper and _never_ mention to anyone in Tokyo that she knew where to find him. Not as dangerous as the good doctor had been around Kasumi.

Then another thought occurred to her, and she added grimly, “But he left Nerima months before the end so I doubt he mentioned the sequel, or even knew about it: where I came back a year later as a revenant — an angry ghost,” she added at several confused looks, “— and hunted down most of those I held responsible for my murder and damnation.”

“Noooo, no, he didn’t,” Robin said quietly.

“I didn’t think so.” Raven quickly sketched out how she had slaughtered all those she’d held responsible but one; how she had fought a duel with that one — one of her fiancées — each girl trying to save the other, and almost been tricked into killing Akane before one of her future mothers had stepped in to save the day; and of the offer she and Akane had been given: Ranma’s soul to bond with Trigon’s soul shard in Akane’s body reduced to an infant, slowly remembering her past life as she grew up again; Akane’s soul to move on to her next life. And of Raven’s promise that once Trigon had been dealt with, she would seek out Akane in her new life and offer to awaken her memories of her previous one and see where they went from there.

Starfire floated up again, hands clasped in front of her bountiful chest, and Raven could almost see the hearts in her eyes to go with the sentimental dreck she was emoting. “Oh, friend Raven, that is so —”

“If you say ‘romantic’, I am going to _hurt_ you,” Raven snarled. “It was terrifying, and ugly, and painful beyond belief, and left Akane’s sisters and my mother mourning their dead and trying to rebuild their ruined lives while raising two little girls. There was nothing ‘romantic’ about it!” The world was suddenly tinted red. The rest of the Titans had tensed, leaning back in their seats away from her, and she realized she was shaking.

She closed her eyes, fighting to control her shuddering breath, and felt arms circling her from behind in a gentle hug. Starfire, of course, radiating fearless concern. Raven patted one of her friend’s hands and whispered, “Sorry about that, bad memories.” She had hoped that with her father dead, her flashes of anger would vanish as well. They’d decreased, but it seemed some at least had been inheritance rather than influence.

“No, friend Raven, it is I who should be sorry,” Starfire murmured in her ear. She strengthened her hug for a moment, then released Raven to fly back and settle down again to snuggle against her boyfriend.

Raven swallowed to clear the sudden lump in her throat. “Sorry about that,” she repeated to the rest of the Titans.

“Hey, no problem,” Beast Boy replied, “what’s a day without needing to change your shorts? Dude, you are _really_ scary when you go all red-eye like that!”

Laughter filled the room for a few moments, and as it died down a now smiling Raven said, “Anyway, that’s the deal. I need to head over to Japan to rebuild some bridges with my mother and Akane’s sisters, and see if the girl that used to be Akane will accept her memories. Beyond that, I don’t know what’ll happen — she could say no and I’ll be back in a few days, she could say yes and I’ll be there for weeks or months.”

Robin added, “Or permanently.”

“Or permanently,” Raven agreed.

Starfire quietly said, “You will always be welcome here, do not forget, not ever.”

“No chance of that,” Raven replied just as quietly, “this is one of only two true homes I’ve had in two lifetimes. I will miss it ... miss _you_.”

Then she pushed away the melancholy threatening to wash over her — that was washing over her friends — and forced a smile. “Enough of the gloom, or I’ll turn back into the Goth girl I was a year ago!” she announced. “So, who’s up for pizza and a game of tag at the park?”

/oOo\

Fourteen-year-old Kuno Hotaru’s eyes flew open to stare at the clock sitting on her desk against her bedroom wall, its numbers glowing red in the pre-morning dark: 4:58. It was almost time to find out if her father would be visiting her that morning.

Staying curled up on her side with her favorite doll — a stuffed life-sized Pikachu — clutched against her chest, she watched the clock’s numbers change.

4:59.

5:00.

5:01.

A bar of light fell across her bed then vanished again as her door slid open then closed, and her father’s weight settled on the mattress. A hand found her hip and stoked across the covering blanket. “Good morning, little one.”

Without bothering to respond, Hotaru set her Pikachu on the floor by her bed and rolled onto her back as her blanket and top sheet were pulled off of her.

When her father was finished and her door slid closed behind him, she didn’t bother to pull the blankets back over her or even pull her panties back on. Instead, she rolled onto her side and reached down to grab her Pkiachu to clutch him tight to her chest, curling up into a ball with her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to ignore the oozing wetness between her thighs.

So she didn’t notice when her Pikachu’s eyes glowed red for several long seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title comes from the song by Dougie Maclean:
> 
> Oh they tell their tales to the wide young eyes  
> Of the fertile plains and the cloudless skies  
> But honesty must take the strain  
> Where lies move fast like a roaring train
> 
> Chorus:
> 
> And the shy ones bleed while the sure ones fail  
> On the trail of the survivor  
> And the trade winds blow through burning sails  
> On the trail of the survivor
> 
> And they make their moves around the virgin light  
> Leave their filthy stains on the clear and bright  
> But hope can never be restrained  
> Where freedom's hand has been nailed and chained
> 
> Chorus
> 
> And sleep will come, it comes to us all  
> And some will fade and some will fall  
> But the distance gained is never gained at all  
> And Atholl's children we rise and fall
> 
> Chorus


	3. A Mother and Daughter Reunion

Hino Rei slowly came awake in the mid-morning heat of her room, even with the faint breeze coming through her open windows. Finally cracking open her sleep-gummed eyes, she noted the location of her own personal sundial — the tree shade-dappled square of sunlight stretching from her east-facing window across her floor — and groaned. She was late for her duties at the Cherry Hill Shrine.

Oh, she wasn’t really worried about any blowback for her tardiness — since he’d learned about her ‘extracurricular’ activities with the Senshi her grandfather had been understanding (with his worries well-hidden) of her occasional late nights, and last night’s demon had been a doozy. And since she had decided to drop out of high school so that she’d only have to split her time two ways instead of three, she could make up the time she’d lost.

Still, she hated being late.

Sitting up on her futon, she stretched and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then glanced out the window and froze at the sight of the two ravens watching her from their tree branch perch. Hugin and Munin were back. _Both_ Hugin and Munin were back. As long as she could remember those ravens had been watching her, and she’d known for just as long that they were more than ravens. As a child she’d named them after Odin’s ravens and daydreamed that they were sent to watch over her by her _real_ father instead of the ladder-climbing brown-noser that had dumped her on her grandfather after her mother died so he could chase after a career in politics.

But she could count on her fingers the number of times they’d shown up together, and almost always their pairing had been a prelude to a major event in her life — the last time had been several years earlier, just before she met Usagi and Ami for the first time and got swept up into the life of a Cretan princess reincarnated as a supernaturals-hunting superhero.

She threw off her blanket and wobbled to her feet ... she needed to get to the shrine and its sacred fire, _fast_.

/\

Dressed in her white and red shrine maiden uniform, her thigh-length raven hair out of its night-time braid and perfunctorily brushed, Rei knelt in front of the Cherry Hill Shrine’s raised square wooden fire pit and gazed into its sacred flames as she prayed, asking for the guidance that she had so often received. And once again, as she watched, a succession of images began to shimmer in the dancing flames. As usual, they were of people and from past experience she assumed they were going to be important in the days ahead: a tall, thin earth-haired man with a bokken in one hand next to a woman with her raven hair in an off-centered pony-tail, their hands resting on the shoulders of a young girl with shoulder-length hair the same shade as the woman — all three with features so close they had to be family; a pair of older earth-haired women, again obviously sisters though one was dressed in a business suit and had her hair in a page-boy cut, while the other wore a house dress and apron and her hair falling down her back past her shoulders. But what was _not_ usual this time was the eerie feeling that these people were familiar, so familiar that their names were on the tip of her tongue.

But then a final image sprang up, of someone she _did_ recognize: Raven of the Teen Titans, in her familiar dark blue long-sleeved leotard and dark blue cape with a red bindi in the center of her forehead, though she had the pale skin that she’d acquired a year ago and bright fiery coloring her locks had shaded into over the past months rather than the gray skin and raven hair from before. So, the current Raven rather than a past image. But she was across the Pacific in America, why was she so important?

And why did Rei feel as if she knew Raven by another name, just as hauntingly out of reach as the others?

/oOo\

Wearing jeans and a T-shirt with ‘Version 2.0’ across her chest (a farewell gift from Beast Boy and his girlfriend — Terra’s contribution being to tone down the phrase to something Raven would actually wear), Raven stood in front of the front door of a small, brightly painted house with flower pots on the stoop that held the Tenoh household. She lifted a hand to the doorbell, then let it fall ... again. Just like the last three times in the past five minutes.

She laughed self-mockingly. “I can face down a genocidal planet-devourer who’s been feeding my despair for years, but I can’t ring a simple doorbell.”

“That was just a genocidal planet-devourer, this is Family.” From behind her, Belldandy rested her hands on the Titan’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “There is nothing but love for you here, and they have been waiting for almost twenty years. You can do this.”

“Right.” Raven took a deep breath, then resolutely reached up and pressed the doorbell.

Less than a minute later, the door swung open to reveal an older woman dressed in a kimino. She hadn’t changed in the few days since Raven had last watched her through her mirror, of course, though much more since the last time they’d met face to face. Though no martial artist and busy with motherhood she’d kept herself in shape, but her auburn hair had faded until it was almost as white as Mama Urd’s and there were crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes, other lines that said she spent a great deal of time smiling. But those lines were faint hints at the moment as she gaped, eyes wide, at the girl standing on her doorstep. Finally, she whispered, “Ranma?”

Raven lifted the Saotome Family blade she held in her other hand. “Hi, Mom, I know I’m a year late but I brought back the sword like I promised.”

For a moment Nodoka’s shocked expression went blank in confusion before she made the connection to that terrible night when her murdered child had come out of the dark seeking Genma’s bloody death in recompense for her suffering in Hell, and how, her purpose accomplished, she had taken the Saotome Family blade with her when she left — after promising to return it if she judged Nodoka a worthy mother of the unborn sibling she was then carrying. Nodoka squealed, “You forgave me!” Ignoring the sword, she eagerly reached out to pull Raven into a hug.

Raven had had her empathic sense locked down as tightly as she could manage, but with the hug she was frozen stiff by the overpowering wave of Nodoka’s pure joy. Only when that joy began to turn to worry as her mother’s hold loosened, did she finally force herself to hesitantly return the hug. “I’m not much on hugs these days, but yeah, I did,” she said. “I won’t say it was easy, but my mamas helped.” That wasn’t entirely true — over the past year, as she had reconnected to her mothers after her four-year absence, she had quickly come to again love their hugs and the unadulterated love and joy that came with them; and though she hadn’t admitted it, she had come to love Starfire’s hugs as well, happy, passionate, uncomplicated soul that her best friend was. But the purity of Nodoka’s joy had almost instantly transformed into a heart-storm of guilt-love-joy-grief-anticipation-regret — as intense as any her mothers had suffered during the year she was dreaming nightly of her torment in Niflheim — and it was hammering at Raven’s mental defenses, pushing her self control to the edge. Though at least none of the flower pots were glowing black or exploding, yet.

Ignorant of the turmoil she was inflicting on her daughter, Nodoka simply replied, “Yes, Belldandy told us about your mothers. I need to meet them someday, to acknowledge the debt I owe them for raising you the way I should have.” Ending the hug, Nodoka held Raven out at arm’s length. “And they did very well, indeed. I wish I could say that I am proud of how you turned out, but that properly belongs to them. So I shall have to settle for being grateful.

“But first we need to talk. Belldandy’s been kind enough to tell us something of your life during her yearly visits, but she could hardly tell us _everything_. Nabiki and Kasumi are home as well, so there is no need to wait for them, but the children are out.”

“Yeah, I know,” Raven said. Nodoka raised an eyebrow and Raven reached up to nervously rub her neck, then winced when she realized what she was doing — and the way she’d been talking. It seemed she was slipping back into habits two decades gone. She made a mental note to make _very_ sure that was under control before she met the Titans again, she fondly thought she had a certain reputation for sophistication to maintain (meat-heavy diet aside). “I did say I’d keep an eye on ya as best I could.” She fought to suppress another wince. _‘Ya’? This is gonna ..._ going to _be harder than I thought_.

But Nodoka _had_ been a mother — and as best Raven had been able to tell a good one — for almost nineteen years, now, and through the hands still on Raven’s shoulders she felt her mother’s heart-storm ease even as it took on a distinctly mischievous edge. “ ‘Ya’?” Nodoka repeated. “Your mothers didn’t raise you to speak that way, young lady!”

Raven forced back her own smile, instead putting on a properly contrite expression as she clasped her hands in front of her and gave Nodoka a shallow bow. “No, they didn’t,” she replied, “going forward I shall strive to properly honor their teachings.”

Nodoka stared at her, shocked at her completely un-Ranma-like riposte, before breaking into a giggling fit that was a pale shadow of the amusement sweeping through her, for the moment, at least, washing away the last of her inner turmoil and leaving the same loving joy as Raven’s other mothers. Then, at the sound of Belldandy’s giggles from behind Raven, she glanced up over her daughter’s shoulder and blushed. Hastily letting go of Raven’s shoulders, she dropped her hands to above her knees and bowed. “Belldandy, I am sorry! It was unforgivably rude of me to ignore you.”

No, please, it is I who should apologize,” Belldandy replied. “You have been waiting for this day for almost two decades. I have no wish to spoil it for you.”

“That is not possible,” Nodoka assured her. “Please join us, Kasumi will be serving lunch soon.”

Belldandy hesitated, but finally shook her head. “No. As lovely as one of Kasumi’s meals sounds, I only came because I know where you live. Now that Raven is here, I need to return to my own family while there’s still a house left.”

She quickly made her farewells and left, and as Raven watched her walk away she tried her best not to feel abandoned with these strangers she had considered family twenty years before. She took a deep breath and turned back to her mother to find an understanding smile on her face. Realizing that she was rubbing the back of her neck again, she yanked her hand down as she blushed.

“I know this is hard,” Nodoka said softly, reaching out to take hold of of her daughter’s hand without the sword. “It would have been easier if you had been able to pretend we’d never existed.”

Raven sighed. “Yes, it would have. But it wouldn’t have been fair, not really — I wasn’t the only victim of that mess. Besides, I promised Akane.”

“Yes, Akane. Have you visited her yet?”

“No.” Raven shook her head. “I thought I’d touch base here first, get my part of the re-introductions over first before looking her up.”

Nodoka considered Raven’s reasoning, and slowly nodded. “That is perhaps for the best. Come along, the others will be happy to see you. Well, Kasumi and Nabiki, anyway, Elder Cologne is away training with Haruka and Michiru is practicing with the orchestra she’s joined recently, they won’t be back until this evening. That’ll make things easier....”

She pulled her daughter into the house and Raven simply went along, listening as Nodoka babbled on and not mentioning that she’d deliberately made sure the others would be gone when she arrived. She didn’t even mind the physical contact, not with the joy and gleeful anticipation she was picking up. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so awkward, after all.

/oOo\

Setsuna leaned back in her home office chair and rubbed at tired eyes, hoping that her building headache stayed at the incipient stage. It had been over a week since she had returned to Japan — a week spent plowing through all the bizarre events reported by the police, schools, clubs, otaku of the supernatural — and she _still_ couldn’t find whatever breakout had set it off. Oh, there were plenty of bizarre events, but there always were — this was Japan, after all, currently the most magic- and spirit-haunted place on Earth. Unfortunately, none of them rose to the potentially catastrophic level that would bring her the Dream. (She was _really_ happy Japan was an island — as with the centuries around the collapse of the Roman Empire when the magicaL/supernatural locus had been centered on the British Isles, having unbroken water on all sides fencing in the supernatural influences had been a godsend. The centuries in between when it had been centered on Tibet had been a never-ending _nightmare_.)

 _Maybe it isn’t actually in Japan, this time_ , she thought as she stretched before refocusing on her desktop monitor. _It’s rare, but there_ is _a wider world out there_. She _really_ hoped that wouldn’t be the case. After the last few centuries she had a solid network for Japan, but not so much outside of it. The odds were that she wouldn’t learn about it until the news reported the latest massive superhero team-up to beat back some Eldritch Horror —

She stiffened when one police report title caught her eye, and quickly opened the file. Reading the report of a young boy’s toy that had come to life and murdered the boy’s father, she felt her headache go from incipient to pounding. _Maybe it’s just a coincidence_ , she thought. _Or a copycat_. But she was grasping at straws, and she knew it. And it wouldn’t take long for the next incident to confirm it. _I’ll have to reawaken Malaina and Hali. Poor girls, I was hoping that I could leave them in peace for more than one generational cycle_.

Still, it was early to be considering that. She still had to sift through the haystack to find the innocent needle being used as a gateway this time, and unless she got _very_ lucky that was going to take time and a lot more deaths.


	4. Surprise!

From her perch on top of a three-story apartment building, a Raven now dressed in her ‘working uniform’ stared wide-eyed at the battle taking place in the street below her — _nothing_ she was seeing made sense!

First was the tall, stringy dark-haired man-shape dressed in tattered, dirt-filthy homespun and carrying a hollow turnip with a snarling face carved into its side glowing from an inner light. The figure should have been ridiculous, but the sharpened teeth revealed by a feral grin under mad eyes combined with the occasional flash of light bursting from the makeshift lantern’s slitted eyes and fanged mouth to burn and destroy whatever it shone across as the lantern swung about on its corded twine clutched in bony, blistered fingers ... no, the chaos and destruction killed any amusement Raven might have felt at the apparition’s appearance, if not her bewilderment — Jack o’ the Lantern’s wandering ground in his eternally futile quest for rest was the British Isles and the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States, what was he doing in _Japan?_

And then there was the _second_ sight that made no sense — the five Senshi fighting to contain Jack’s mad outburst as he railed against his fate. Not that there was anything unusual about the Senshi’s presence as such, fighting the evil that did much more than go bump in the night was what this particular band of Magical Girls _did_ , after all. No, what had Raven befuddled was that _she_ was there. Her gaze kept switching back and forth between the loud and flashy violence taking place in the street below and the gold spindle she dangled from a silver cord. Unlike Jack’s lantern the spindle hung down straight with the cord taut, tilted down as it pointed at the street below, the tip swinging as it followed the teenage girl in a red-trimmed fuku with long raven-black hair as she in turn shifted positions, trying to find a clear shot at the ranting madman — Sailor Mars. Smiling wryly, Raven thought, _Well, at least I’m finally well and truly distracted_.

The visit with Nodoka, Kasumi and Nabiki had not gone as well as Raven had hoped. Not that there had been any outward gaffes, outside of Nodoka and Nabiki continually referring to her as Ranma instead of Raven (she hadn’t had the heart to correct them — though Kasumi, of course, was spot-on perfect). But the day had passed in stories from both sides of the almost-twenty years apart: Ranma spoke of growing up in an Asgardian suburb with three wonderful mothers while her memories of Ranma’s life slowly returned, then of her life as a superhero after she ran away from home; the others spoke of life from the flip side — three mothers of two little and very different girls. And as story followed story, Raven had found herself struggling more and more with the last thing she had expected — pure, green-eyed, raving jealousy. The thought of _Why couldn’t that have been me and Akane?_ had grown stronger and stronger, until she’d finally had to excuse herself before before her control slipped and various objects around the home began exploding. And before Ku Lon and those two young girls returned home, she _really_ doubted her shaky control could survive that encounter.

After that she had given up all thought of seeking out Akane that afternoon, instead meditating through the evening and into the night as she fought to calm down and recover her center. (It would have been faster to find some abandoned building and blow it to Niflheim, but Tokyo wasn’t Jump City — she didn’t know which buildings were actually abandoned.) Only the shifting of the spindle attuned to Akane in the early hours of the morning had pulled the redhead out of her funk, replacing it with curiosity over what her reincarnated former fiancée could be up to. And that had led her to ... this.

When Mama Urd had given her the spindle, the sheer good-natured humor that had been coming off the platinum blonde commander of the Furies and heir to Niflheim in waves had belied her properly stern demeanor for the occasion. (Raven may not have been in the line of succession, but she was still Hild’s adopted granddaughter and demons took oaths seriously — setting out to honor a generation-old promise was _important_.) Raven had suspected a prank was in the offing, but when nothing had happened she’d shrugged it off. But it seemed that _this_ was the prank.

Raven’s wry smile turned predatory for a moment, and she hoped that her mothers — and Mama Urd in particular — were watching. “I’ll have to consider how to properly repay her ... less than adequate briefing,” she murmured before refocusing on the fight below.

The fight seemed to be in a holding pattern, the Senshi bouncing around the edge of an invisible half-circle crossing both ends of the street and a section of sidewalk, centered on Jack o’ the Lantern across the street with his back to a business building’s wall. The girls were alternately taking potshots with lightning, flame, chains and whirling tiara while blocking or dodging the scorching hellfire from Jack’s lantern. (None of Jack’s usual subtlety here — but then, the middle of Tokyo was lacking in the usual swamps for him to lure or scare nighttime wanderers into to drown.) At this time of night the streets were empty of cars and pedestrians, but the buildings on both sides of the street were scarred by scorch marks and divots while glass from shattered windows was scattered across road and sidewalk.

 _Wait, aren’t there_ five _Senshi? And a pink-haired little girl that joins them sometimes_ — She hastily looked around, and … there! Almost directly below Raven, crouched out of Jack’s angle of vision beside some steps leading up into one of the office buildings was another Senshi, in a blue-trimmed fuku with short bluish-tinted hair. She was ignoring the chaos surrounding her, staring at a softly glowing _something_ cupped in her palms. Even as Raven found her, Sailor Mercury shouted, “Got it! His power is all concentrated in the piece of Infernal Fire in his lantern. Take that away from him and he should be helpless.”

Instantly, the battle-miasma of anger, frustration, fear — and, unusually, bone-deep weariness from the tatter-clothed apparition — was laced with sharp determination. “Right, you heard her!” Sailor Moon called out, her twin knee-length blond ponytails hanging from two forward-facing, garnet-red crystals on top of her head whipping around as she spun out of the path of another blast of Hellfire. One ponytail was clipped by the white-hot stream, its center shriveling away to ash. She ignored the lower strands floating to the pavement as she braced herself, took a deep breath, and _shrieked_.

Jack screamed, staggering back as the wave of fury-powered sound washed over him, what glass there still was in the windows behind him shattering in place. The hell-lantern swung wildly as his hands clapped over his bleeding ears, the Senshi dodging as its beam of fiery light played randomly about, then an equally fiery arrow from Sailor Mars’ bow shaped of fire slashed through the swinging twine, and the lantern spun through the air as it arced toward the street.

Raven was in the air, diving over the edge of the roof and pushing downward. She reached out as she flew, her own dark magic reaching ahead of her, _feeling_ for the dropping turnip, only to sense that turnip oozing through her ‘grasp’ like a ball-bearing through oil. Instantly abandoning her effort to stop the lantern’s fall as she leveled out a few feet above the street, she reshaped her magic into a dome. She poured her strength into it so much that the dome seemed like a black hole of pure nothingness ... and the dome vanished in a roaring burst of reddish white.

/\

“No!”

Sailor Mars’s gaze had been yanked upward at the shout, to the redheaded girl diving down into the light of the closest surviving streetlight, dark cape streaming behind her as she desperately reached out one black-clad arm. Equally black energy that _sang_ with hellish discordance flashed down from the newcomer’s extended hand to englobe the falling lantern. The lantern’s tumbling arc turned into a slow, straight drop — and the dark demonic power reshaped itself into a dome so black it hurt.

Mars’ eyes widened in horrified realization. “Down, hold your breath!” she screamed, the command cutting across the confused shouts of the other Senshi, and she threw herself flat without a care for the shards of window glass scattered across the sidewalk.

The light-swallowing dome vanished in an explosion of white-hot Hellfire, filling the street for an instant of searing heat, and then it was gone.

Mars pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, coughing and wheezing at the suddenly too-hot air — but at least she still had lungs to breath with, instead of empty spaces seared to ash by breathed-in Hellfire. But the others ... ?

She braced one gloved hand against the building behind her, ignoring the heat radiating from the bricks and the fire and smoke beginning to pour from glass-empty windows, and forced herself to her feet before looking frantically around. Moon still on her knees and one hand, the other fisted against hacking coughs. Mercury sitting up and staring at what Mars assumed was her Crystal of All Sight cupped in shaking hands. Jupiter kneeling beside a Venus crumpled at the base of the building ... Mars felt her heart stop for a moment before the tall, brunette tomboy breathed a sigh of relief and gave them a thumbs-up. Of the demonic entity they had been fighting there was nothing left but a man-shaped shadow scorched into the wall of the office building across the street, clearly visible in the growing firelight. _Not_ one of their more successful clashes, even if they’d won in the end.

 _That just leaves_ ... There! Almost at the end of the block there was a flash of red hair, a crumpled figure lying face down in the light of the growing fires and streetlights that had been far enough away from the fight to survive. Pushing herself away from the wall, Mars stagger-ran down the street and dropped down, ignoring the asphalt scraping into a bare knee as she gently turned over the newcomer to reveal the face she had seen in her fire vision just that morning.

Mercury dropped to her knees beside Mars. “Raven!” she exclaimed as she ran the green-glowing Crystal in her hand along Raven’s body. “What are the Titans doing here?”

“I think it’s only her,” Mars replied. “How is she?” She hadn’t seen the Crystal do more than flicker red so there shouldn’t be anything major, but Mercury was frowning....

“She’ll be fine, just some scrapes and a bump on the head,” Mercury assured her, though her frown didn’t disappear. “But I don’t like some of the readings I’m getting....” She looked around at the burning buildings. “I’ll call this in, let’s get out of here,” she said as Moon and Jupiter joined them, a sagging Venus between them with her arms over their shoulders and each with an arm around her waist.

As Mars slipped her arms under Raven’s knees and shoulders to pick her up, Mercury rose to her feet and rotated in place with the hand holding her Crystal outstretched. Nodding at whatever the Crystal had told her, she sent it to her pocket-dimensional ‘Bag of Holding’ (Venus had supplied the name, apparently from some game she’d tried out while living in London) and replaced it with the disposable cell phone their government contact had given them. She flipped the phone open and pressed its single button that both activated its GPS signal and called their contact before lifting it to her ear. A few moments later she said, “Mercury here, code three eight four one.” ... “Yes, we just finished. Do you have the GPS location?” ... “Good, there are —” She took a quick look around. “— five burning buildings at the moment, though there will be more if the fire department doesn’t hurry. No life signs and the fight was in the street, so we don’t need any ambulances this time.” ... “No, nothing to report immediately. Hopefully I’ll have more at the standard debriefing. The usual two days?” ... “Good, see you then.”

Closing the phone and returning it to her ‘Bag of Holding’, her frown returned as she looked down at the unconscious redheaded gaijin in Mars’s arms. “Let’s make it our secondary safe house.”

The others’ eyes widened. Moon exclaimed, “What!? But she’s a hero!”

“ _Maybe_ she’s a hero,” Mercury replied. “I know she looks like Raven from the Teen Titans, but ... I’ll explain when we get there, let’s go.”

After a moment Moon nodded, and she and Jupiter shifted so that they were in a rough circle. She grabbed Mercury’s hand with the one that wasn’t helping Jupiter hold up Venus while Mercury and Jupiter laid their other hands on Mars’s shoulders. In a flash of light and an echoing crack, the Senshi vanished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know in the last chapter I posted (for another story) I said these chapters should be coming faster, and now this chapter is late. I'd like to be able to blame the delay on summer vacation, and getting sick, and a bunch of projects getting dumped on me, and that's all true. But beyond that there were a couple more things: some really good fanfic (IMHO, at least, check out kathryn518's _I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For_ and _I'm Still Here_ over at fanfiction.net if you want to see if you agree with me), and the fact that the next chapter for _The Brothers' War_ was kicking my butt. I have around 4,000 words written, but was finding myself lucky to add a few hundred more a day and decided to put it aside until the next time it comes up in rotation. So from here it's on to the next chapter for _The Unexpected Hobbit_ , and then on to _Saving Grace_.


	5. First Contact

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, it’s been way too long! I won’t go into details, but life has been more lively, lately — nothing bad, just ... lively. And it’s going to be just as lively for half of next year, too, though hopefully I’ll be able to adjust.
> 
> Another bit of news, I’ve decided to focus on just two stories, this one and _The Unexpected Hobbit_. Once this one of finished it’ll be replaced with _Ranma, the Naïve Succubus_ and _TUH_ with _Chained World_ , and _Yrthbound_ replacing whatever is finished up next. (Though I have a nearly-completed chapter of the last that I hope to push through to completion some time before that, and I have a chapter of _Lemon Flu: Aftermath_ that needs to be finished sooner or later.)

“— thanks, you’ve been a big help.”

Raven lay on what felt like a _very_ lumpy couch, ignoring the voice speaking heavily Japanese-accented English and trying very hard not to move — she had twitched when she first woke up a few seconds ago, and the spike of pain that had shot through her head had not been promising. The problem was that the couch wasn’t just lumpy, it was musty.

“Yes, we’ll call if we need any help. But we should be able to handle this.”

She ignored whoever was talking on the phone as her nose began to twitch — the scent of the couch seeping further and further up her sinuses — hoping desperately that breathing through her mouth would help. It did, a little, but — “Achooo!”

The prodigious sneeze jackknifed her upright, and she grabbed her head at the bolt of pain the movement caused. She waited a long moment for the pain to recede, then blinked the tears out of her eyes and looked around.

As it turned out she wasn’t on a couch, but a futon on the floor of a hunting lodge — a dilapidated one, dust everywhere, cracked windows, though well-lit. The Senshi were gathered around her (Raven’s eyes paused for a moment on the tall brunette with a simple high-tied ponytail in the green-trimmed white fuku, from the way she held herself the only one of the five with any formal training), and the blue-haired one — Sailor Mercury? Yes, Sailor Mercury — was putting a Justice League communicator into ... empty air. Raven’s eyes widened as the other girl’s hand vanished up to the wrist. She hadn’t realized that anyone in Japan knew that Amazon technique and wondered how they’d learned it, but set it aside as unimportant at the moment. (The Justice League communicator was no surprise at all, not with the way it had been spreading them around after the Thanagarian invasion, whether those receiving them joined up or not — she had one of her own tucked away.) In her still-fluent Japanese, she asked, “I take it the Justice League vouched for me?”

“Not quite,” Mercury replied. “Zatanna said to ask you about your little adventure with her at the ‘Promised Land’ fun park.”

The room instantly became _way_ too hot, and Raven knew her face had to be doing a marvelous imitation of a night light, she was blushing so hard — and she didn’t even have the partial camouflage of the gray skin tone she’d had until the showdown with Trigon, not anymore. She growled, “I am going to have _words_ with that woman. She promised to never tell anyone about that!”

Mercury giggled. “She told me what to say about _that_ , too. She said she promised not to tell people what happened, not to not talk about it at all. And she didn’t tell me, so your secret’s safe.” She reached behind her and pulled a chair away from the table there and turned it around so she could sit down. “So, Raven, do you want to tell us why you register as a demon? Zatanna says you’re safe, but that it’s your story to tell.”

The other Senshi seemed to relax, some also grabbing chairs while others leaned against the closest wall, and Raven realized that they’d all been ready for a fight. _Smart girls_ , she thought just before Moon knelt in front of her on the futon. Raven started to jerk back when the teenager reached up to cup her cheeks, and winced as another spike of pain slammed into her. The hands started to glow with a soft pearly light, and Raven sagged in relief as her headache slowly eased until it vanished.

So did Moon. “I’ve wanted to do that since we got here, but Venus wouldn’t let me.” She scowled at the other blonde Senshi as she and Raven rose to their feet.

Venus shrugged unapologetically. “Better she still had the headache if she turned out to be hostile.”

Moon’s scowl turned into a glare, and Raven hastily said, “She’s right — never turn down an advantage against an enemy. When it comes to a real fight, if you aren’t cheating you aren’t trying.”

“But you _aren’t_ an enemy!” Moon protested.

It was Raven’s turn to shrug. “You didn’t know that.”

“So how did a demon end up a member of the Teen Titans?”

Raven turned at the words to find that one of the Senshi hadn’t relaxed with the rest — Sailor Mars was still taut as a bowstring. She was faking it well, one of the ones now leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, but now that Raven’s empathy wasn’t being swamped by her headache she could sense the other girl’s wary confusion.

Mars continued, “We’ve been told repeatedly that there are non-hostile demons out there, but you’d be the first we’ve met. I’d like to know why.”

Raven studied Akane’s reincarnation for a long moment, before nodding. Normally — both as Ranma and as Raven — she would be reluctant to simply spill out her history, but this _was_ the girl she’d come to Japan to meet. And from the body language and emotional mix these girls were friends as well as teammates, whatever she told Akane — Mars — the rest would shortly know, anyway.

“All right,” Raven agreed, “but this is as personal as my visit to the ‘Promised Land’ park, if not as embarrassing. Please don’t pass this around unless you absolutely have to.” As the Senshi nodded or murmured agreement, she looked around again. “By the way, where’s Pinkie?”

Moon groaned as the other laughed. “It’s a school night and the Spore was asleep when the alert came, so I was able to sneak out without waking her up. Now spill!”

“Right.” Raven focused on the tall brunette again. _Hey, it worked with Robin_. “Jupiter, right? You have some training, have you ever heard of a boy named Ranma?”

“Yes, yes I have — a great martial artist and misogynistic idiot.”

Raven winced. “The ‘idiot’ part is fair enough, but I was never ... okay, I learned better — eventually.” She suppressed a grin at the waves of shock and poleaxed expressions — this could be fun! — and launched into a _highly_ edited version of her life story. Not that even the edited version wasn’t spectacular enough.

She finished her tale to tense silence as the even more shocked Senshi simply stared at her. Finally, Mercury said, “You really expect us to —”

“It’s me, isn’t it? I’m Akane.”

The other Senshi turned to stare at Mars, leaning against the wall. Venus asked, “You don’t believe this ... this fable, do you? I mean, the granddaughter —”

“ _Adopted_ granddaughter,” Raven broke in to correct.

“— _adopted_ granddaughter,” Venus corrected, glaring for a moment at Raven, “of Kami-sama himself?” (Raven had left Hild out of her history lesson.) “Who’s the sort-of-half-demon daughter of an interdimensional world-eater? _Really?_ ”

“Yes, I believe her.” Mars pulled over a chair from a nearby table and dropped down onto it, rubbed at her face. “I saw another vision in the Sacred Fire today ... yesterday now, I guess. I was going to tell you about it at our next meeting.” She nodded at Raven. “She was in it, along with some others I didn’t recognize. The weird thing was that I felt like I knew them, that their names were on the tip of my tongue. I’d guess that they are others from the previous life Raven told us about.” She looked over at Raven. “I _am_ this ‘Akane’, right?”

“Yes, you are.”

“Then —”

“No.” Everyone turned to stare at Moon. Raven was surprised at the abrupt shift in the girl’s emotions. Up to that point Moon had been mercurial, flowing like water from concern to worry to shock to delight to anger, and Raven was certain she would have burst out with the same “how romantic!” line as Starfire when she’d heard why Raven was visiting Tokyo if Mercury hadn’t spoken up first (she was also _far_ too trusting, in Raven’s opinion) — she found it hard to believe that Moon was supposed to be the Sailor Senshi’s leader. But suddenly she was radiating a rock-solid determination fit to do Robin proud.

“No,” Moon repeated. “It’s late — no, _much_ too early — and we’ve all been through a fight. We’re tired, nobody is making any important decisions until we’ve gotten some rest and had a chance to talk it over this afternoon. Let’s go home.” She glanced around at others, waiting until they all agreed. Then she looked over at Raven and it was as if a switch flipped. “Oh no, you have no place to stay! You can come home —”

Mars rose to her feet and lightly smacked the back of Moon’s head. “No, you are not taking her home with you! You just said no important decisions like ... oh, I don’t know, revealing our secret identities?”

“Idola’s so _mean_ ,” Moon whined, rubbing her head, then turned to Raven. “But you _do_ have a place to stay? I mean, you won’t find a room at this time of night, at least not a place you’d _want_ to stay at —” She blushed furiously and quickly continued. “I know we can let her into the school —”

“I have a place,” Raven hurriedly said, blinking at Moon’s abrupt emotional shift from determined leader to flighty teenager. “At least I _think_ I do....” She wasn’t looking forward to arriving at Aunt Belldandy’s home this late on a school night. And how long would it take her to fly there? She glanced around at the dilapidated room again. “Where are we?”

/\

For a split-second the night-dark of the school yard vanished in blinding flash and a sharp report echoeing through the neighborhood. Then the dark flooded back to hide the six figures that had appeared on the lawn under a tree.

Raven staggered away from the others only for Mars to catch her elbow with a steadying hand. The Titan crouched slightly with her hands on her knees and fought not to heave. “That was _awful_ ,” she gasped out between deep breaths.

Mercury had summoned a blue-glowing crystal and was looking through it as she played its soft beam of light across Raven’s body. “Odd, that never hit us like that. Perhaps your demonic heritage? That would make sense, considering why we were —”

Mars laid a comforting hand on Raven’s shoulder. “Enough, Mercury, don’t be rude. You’re supposed to ask before you do that.”

“Oh, right.” The light vanished along with the crystal, and the Senshi of Ice bowed. “She’s right, that was rude. Please accept my apologies.”

Raven waved it off, mollified by the embarrassed remorse the other girl was emoting. “Don’t worry about it, you’re not the first person I’ve met who’s insatiably — and inappropriately — curious. Just don’t do it again without asking.” Though Mercury wasn’t all _that_ much like Starfire....

The others giggled then made their farewells and, after Moon made sure Raven could find them (or at least Mars) again that afternoon, they bounded away and disappeared over the rooftops in a manner that would have done the roof-hopping members of the Nerima Wrecking Crew proud.

As soon as they were out of sight Mars removed the hand from Raven’s shoulder that had kept her from flying away. “Now that they’re gone, would you like a place to spend the night? I got the impression that you weren’t very certain of your reception.”

Raven quirked a night-obscured eyebrow at the Senshi of Fire. “What about what you told Moon? About secret identities, I mean — Idola, right? That _was_ what Moon called you right after you reprimanded her about secret identities.”

Mars smiled ruefully. “Yes, the Princess does have her moments, doesn’t she? Though ‘Idola’ isn’t actually my name. Still, I’ve already made up my mind — I’ll do it. But let’s let Moon play things out, first ... even after a few years she doesn’t get very many flashes of real leadership, and I want to encourage the few times she manages it. So, a futon for a few hours and a shower and breakfast — or more likely lunch — when we wake up? If we don’t say anything the others will assume you tracked me down early after you woke up.”

Raven lifted a hand to cover a prodigious yawn. “Sounds heavenly, let’s go.”

/oOo\

Kodachi started when the soft chime sounded, some of the still-liquid egg she was scrambling sloshing out of the pan and onto the stove. The chime sounded again, and she looked over at the digital clock on the wall.

Yes, it was 5 o’clock.

She set the pan to the side and turned off the burner, then dropped onto one of the seats at the kitchen table and stared at a crystal knick knack sitting on the windowsill over the sink. The seconds slowly ticked past one by one, until the crystal started to glow a soft red. As more seconds ticked past the crystal’s glow slowly strengthened, the color shifting from red to orange, yellow, green ... a hint of blue ... and the light flickered out. Almost. Another few mornings and it would peak, and the cycle would start again — only faster than the one before. And the next would be faster still, until _finally_ they would have their revenge!

_And what do you care?_

She braced her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hands, tears leaking out from under her eyelids as she fought to deny that inner voice. She and her brother had been working toward this day for _fifteen years!_

It had taken them years to learn who was responsible for the death of her beloved Ranma-sama and the kidnapping of that red-headed strumpet. (At least, so Tatewaki insisted — as far as Kodachi was concerned her rival for Ranma-sama’s affections had run away with Ryoga before the body was cold, like the whore she was.) And then just when she and her brother were ready to move into China against the Amazons, their family fortune had run out and they had lost everything — the mansion, the college she’d been attending, the officials and politicians her father had bribed, the funds the siblings were using to hire mercenaries and bribe Chinese officials to look the other way ... even Mr. Green Turtle had been taken away to a zoo! Their father had used the last of their money to buy a ticket to Hawaii to blow his brains out on a beach.

She had been strongly considering following her father’s example, when Tatewaki had approached her with a plan — a book he had found, one with _true_ magic, and a ritual. It would take time, and the creation of a child of their own blood to eventually abuse for the gratification of a dark power, but they would have their revenge!

And now, all she could think of was little Ho-chan’s ... was Hotaru’s smile when she took her first steps, the way she’d clutched her mother’s hand when they’d walked into the school on her first day, her puppy-dog eyes when she’d wanted another piece of cake on her last birthday....

_Enough! After fifteen years you can’t quit now, not when we’re so close. Once we’ve unleashed hell on the Amazons we’ll get Hotaru the best psychiatric care available if I have to buy nothing but ramen for a year!_

She abruptly pushed herself up from the table and turned toward the stove. Tatewaki would be finished with his shower soon, and his breakfast had to be ready. And then it would be time to get Hotaru ready for school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, like their origin the Senshi’s powers will be somewhat different than canon, though following themes. Sailor Moon is the team’s primary healer and defense against purely magical attacks and possessions, though as last chapter showed she has a few familiar physical attacks.


	6. Revelations & Secrets

Raven finally gave up trying to sleep longer when the sun reached her face. As delicious as the heat of the sun was, there was no point in lying around when she could be doing something useful — such getting to know Akane’s current incarnation better.

She sat up on the futon and looked around as she stretched. She hadn’t really taken the time to examine Mars’s bedroom when they’d arrived, and now she liked what she saw. Oh, it had a few touches that screamed ‘teenaged girl’, like the poster of an androgynously handsome idol singing into his microphone, but it was more spartan than Starfire’s and _much_ more than Terra’s.

“Good, you’re awake.” Mars walked into the room in her ‘civilian’ form, one towel wrapped around her and drying her hair with another. “Grandfather will have breakfast ready shortly, so —” She broke off when she realized she’d lost her audience, and followed Raven’s gaze out the window to the nearby tree. “Oh, Hugin and Munin are back again.”

Raven’s attention snapped back to Mars. “You _know_ them?”

“Sure, they’ve been visiting every so often all my life, sometimes together but mostly ...” Mars finally connected the dots between the names she’d given the ravens and Raven’s story the previous night, and froze. “You mean they _are_ Hugin and Munin? _The_ Hugin and Munin?”

“Yes, my grandfolks use them to keep an eye on important people sometimes,” Raven replied absentmindedly, still focused on the ravens in the tree. “And Auntie Bell promised they’d keep an eye on you. Not that my aunts and moms could _do_ much, their ability to interfere is less than a lot of people think,” she added, thinking of the angel craze that had swept the U.S., “but at least they had something to tell me when I remembered enough to ask.”

Mars stared wide-eyed at the ravens for a few moments — she _really_ didn’t know how to feel about what she’d just learned — but finally shook it off to consider later and turned back to her guest. “Anyway, like I was saying, Grandfather will be done with breakfast shortly, so you might want to grab a shower first. Ah ...” She shrugged. “You smell a little of brimstone. I assume that’s because of the fight last night rather than being your natural fragrance?”

“Yes, it is ... due to the fight, I mean,” Raven agreed. “So where are the towels? And what do I call you?”

“Call me Mars, Grandfather knows about my side job. I’ve already told him who _you_ are ... Raven, I mean, not Ranma. Though ... would it be all right if we told him? He’s a wise man, in spite of being something of a pervert. And besides, he’s family — whatever happens going forward, he’s going to hear about it sooner or later.”

Raven winced, but reluctantly nodded. One more complete stranger to tell her life story to (or was that life stories?), but it was Akane’s — Mars’s — story as well, and Mars’s family and friends. She had a right to determine who was in the know.

Mars smiled sympathetically. “Thank you.” She glanced out the window at the ravens again (Raven could swear they were laughing at the two girls), then turned toward the doorway. “Come on, I’ll show you where the towels and toiletries are kept, and I think I have a change of clothes that won’t fit you _too_ badly.”

/\

“Oh, you’re here!” Moon enthused as she walked into Mars’s living room, followed by Jupiter, Venus (at least from their hair color and styling, since they weren’t in costume) and a barely-teenaged pink-haired copy of Moon; her relief at finding Raven already sitting on a couch next to Mars washed over the still-teen superhero. “We forgot to tell you where to meet us or get your phone number or _anything_. Mercury’s over on top of the school in case you show up there and —”

“Breathe, oh fearless leader,” Mars snarked. As Moon pouted she continued, “I made sure she’d be here. So call Mercury and ...” Her voice trailed off, nose twitching, and her gaze shifted to the box that Jupiter was carrying as the scent of fresh-baked cookies filled the room.

Jupiter grinned. “Nope! Moon’s already been begging but I promised Mercury, no one gets a single one until she gets here.”

Venus had already summoned her communicator and was saying, “ ... already here, get over here now!”

Mercury’s tiny voice from the communicator demanded, “ _Is there an emergency already?_ ”

“No, Elysia’s cookies.”

Laughing, Mercury replied, “ _Definitely an emergency! I’ll be right there_.”

Venus disconnected the call and vanished the communicator while Moon made puppy-dog eyes at her tall teammate, but Jupiter was adamant. She strode over to one of the couches and folded herself down onto it, box perched on her lap with arms protectively circled around and over it. “Not a one!”

For a moment crocodile tears welled up in the dumpling-styled blonde’s eyes, just before she went up onto her tiptoes with a startled ‘eep!’ when the pink-haired girl slapped her on the butt.

“Give it up, baka-mama,” the pinkette growled as she walked past Moon to plunk herself down beside Jupiter. “You’ve used that pouty look so much that everyone is immune.”

“Now you listen here, brat,” Moon snarled, “if you don’t behave I’ll swear myself to a life of celibacy and join a nunnery!”

Raven blinked at that rather unusual threat, but the girl just laughed. “Yeah, right, like _that’s_ gonna happen. When Mamo-chan left for college in America I’m surprised you didn’t strip him naked at the airport, the way you were all over him.”

Moon blushed beet red and jumped over to glare down at her young ‘double’. “I was not, you little spore! If you think ...” And the verbal battle was on as the rest of the girls took their own seats, smiling, grinning or laughing at the pair.

Raven smiled softly as she took in the friendly bickering. She was happy to find that the Senshi were like the Titans, true friends as well as teammates — though having the _leader_ taking on the role of team clown was disturbing, however much she had finally (and reluctantly) come to agree that a jokester was good for morale.

She was also happy that the family room was less traditional than the dining room — Ranma might have had the knack of sitting at the low Japanese tables, but Raven had never picked it up and her legs still ached even after all the hours since the late breakfast (maybe psychosomatic?). The growing pain as she repeated the previous night’s tale to Grandfather Hino had almost made her miss the subtleties in his emotional mix as he listened. The expected shock, horror and anger had all been there (and Starfire and Moon’s hearts-eyed romanticism thankfully missing, though she’d expected that in a male priest), but the faint undertone of amusement had been a surprise. When she’d called him on it he’d simply said that the kami were prone to whimsy, then leered and made an off-color joke about how the long-separated couple could get reacquainted that had Mars slapping the back of his head.

Raven paused in her reminiscing as she sensed a trickle of suspicion threaded through the bonhomie that filled the room. Frowning slightly, she looked around as she tried to find the source. It didn’t seem to be coming from any of the Senshi.... Then she caught sight of the pair of house cats, one white and one black, peeking into the room around the doorframe. She shivered slightly (she hadn’t acquired Ranma’s ailurophobia when she remembered the Pit, thanks to her mothers, but that didn’t mean she liked them) but dismissed the pair as pets and started to ‘look’ elsewhere, when the crescent moons on each cat’s forehead registered. Her attention snapped back to the creatures and she focused all her attention on them ... yes, they were the source of the suspicion — and their emotional mix was _much_ too complex to be simple animals. They _knew_ too much.

The bickering cut off when Raven slapped her forehead with a groan. The redhead begged, “ _Please_ tell me you aren’t magical girls with _talking animal companions!”_ She looked around at all the suddenly blushing faces, and groaned again. “You _are_.”

The cats exchanged glances, and the white one sighed. “I told you it wouldn’t work,” he (male from his voice) groused. “It’s _Raven_. She’s bound to have other senses besides sight.”

“It was worth a try,” the black cat replied with a shrug (and didn’t that look odd in a cat). Walking into the room toward Raven, she dipped her head. “I’m Luna and the white one is Artemis. And ...” she twisted to look back toward the door, and called, “Come on in, Diana.” When a gray cat came around the doorway to join them, Luna continued, “This is our sort-of-daughter, Diana.”

Raven bent where she sat in a sort-of bow, hopefully hiding her faint discomfort. “I’m pleased to meet you. So how did a band of demon-hunting magical girls end up with magical companions?” She smirked and added, “Or does the question answer itself?”

The girls exchanged looks, and one after another nodded. Moon watched, then took a deep breath, once again completely serious. “Right, then. In a way, yes, the question answers itself, but not entirely. You see, we’re —”

A blue-haired girl that had to be Mercury hurried through the doorway. “Are there still cookies left?” she demanded.

“Yay, Sofia’s here!” Moon turned toward the tall brunette. “Now open up that box!”

Mars sighed as Mercury, Venus, Moon and Chibi-Moon converged on the now-cowering Jupiter. “So much for Moon’s leadership moment. Anyway ...” She motioned the cats over. “What Moon was about to say is that yes, Luna and Artemis found us and granted us our powers. You might remember Sailor V operating briefly in Britain? Artemis here found her first there, then Luna found Moon and the rest of us here. V — Venus — joined us shortly after.

“But no, they didn’t pick us out at random — we’re all reincarnated princesses from ancient Crete, alive at the time that Thera erupted and fatally weakened the Minoan Empire — Celina, Cytheria, Elysia, Sofia ...” She pointed in order at Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury. “ ... and you already know I’m Idola.

“Thera’s eruption wasn’t natural, though, there was a gateway to the demon realms in that volcano and it erupted when a mentally disturbed woman opened it — she’s known in Greek mythology as Pandora. We princesses and some Greek allies gave our lives to close that gate again, but the Minoan Queen — Celina’s mother Celine — sent our souls forward to this time. At least we _think_ that’s what happened, our memories were reawakened by crystals our past selves recorded them on before going to their deaths.

“But the gate didn’t stay closed, it reopened a few years ago here in Japan. Luna and Artemis sought us out and gave us the life crystals. We _mostly_ closed the gate, but we’re still getting leakers and probably will for years.”

“Interesting, that would explain Jack o’ the Lantern,” Raven said absentmindedly as she considered the story. And more important, the holes in it — it didn’t matter how powerful this Celine was, no mortal could circumvent souls’ eternal destiny _that_ much. Oh sure, a recently disincorporated soul could be bound to the mortal plane for a time, even bind itself as a ghost, but ... _almost four thousand years?_ Not a chance. And the ‘cats’ were getting worried, at least the older two. The youngest — Diana? — had run over and jumped into Chibi-Celina’s lap and was munching on part of the young teenager’s cookie.

“Who?” Idola asked.

Raven blinked. “Jack? He’s an idiot that thought he could out-bargain Hild, the Daimakaicho of Niflheim ... Hell, that is. Of course, he thought he was bargaining with _Satan_ — the Christians are just a bit on the patriarchal side when it comes to their myths....” She reined herself away from that tangent. “Anyway, he thought he’d guaranteed a place in heaven by making a deal with Hild that would keep him out of Hell. He forgot that just because Hell couldn’t take him, that didn’t mean Heaven had to — he’s been wandering the British Isles and the eastern United States ever since his death. All he has to do to end his wandering is abrogate the deal with Hild, but ...” She shrugged. “I was just surprised to see him here in Japan last night. Do you get a lot from outside the islands like that?”

“Yes, we do — the Pooka was a lot of fun.” Idola smiled at the memory, then her mood darkened. “The Wendigo ... was not so fun.” Obviously pushing away dark thoughts, she continued, “It’s a good thing we have Mercury with her scanning and library crystals, or we’d be in real trouble.” She frowned, radiating concern and a bit of disappointment. “You’re taking our origin story rather well.”

“Is it all that weirder than our own?” Raven asked, then frowned as her thoughts returned to the reincarnation aspect. “But now that you mention it, it doesn’t sound quite right,” she slowly said, and smiled inwardly as the two cats’ temporary relief shifted back to worry then spiked into panic. _Gotcha!_ “Thanks to my own experience and who my mothers are — and especially my grandparents — I know something about reincarnation. Souls simply can’t be kept out of circulation that long. Though I suppose the five of you could enjoy a karmic tie binding you together lifetime after lifetime, and so you were still more or less together when your advisors found you.” _Nope, not the full story, something else is going on_ , she thought at Luna and Artemis’s instant relief. _Besides, that doesn’t explain how they’re all the same age. Also_... “How well do your personalities match those of the Minoan princesses?”

Mercury — Sofia — flopped down on the couch beside Raven, a cookie in each hand. She offered one to Raven as Idola jumped up to grab her share before Celina finished them off. “That’s an interesting question, why do you ask?”

“Because personalities are the only thing that normally carry over from one life to the next — not memories, however much the New Agers try to change that; not karma, whatever the Hindus say; just personality. But that personality can be a powerful driver in how you do. So, how close?”

“Fairly close, actually. Oh, there are differences — I wouldn’t call Mars a man-hater, but she’s more cool to the male half than Idola was, for instance — but those differences are degrees, and not large degrees at that.” She paused, frowned thoughtfully. “Except for Moon, she is _spectacularly_ different. Oh, Celina was a romantic — we weren’t expected to actually _fall in love_ with the Greek princes we were taking to our beds, but considering that if she’d had one her half-Greek daughter would have inherited the throne from her that was all to the good, stronger ties with the mainland barbarians and all that — and she could be a bit of a ditz, but she had a strong sense of responsibility that Moon has matched only recently. And Celina didn’t have the ‘I love everybody, and everyone should return the favor’ aura Moon radiates.” Sofia frowned thoughtfully. “That _is_ rather odd, now that you mention it. Is it important?”

Raven bought herself a few seconds by nibbling on the cookie Sofia had given her, and her eyes widened as the nibbling turned into a chomp. “Wow, that’s almost as good as Kasumi’s and Auntie Bell’s!” She hid a wince — she hadn’t intended to mention Belldandy, and absolutely had no intention of explaining her place in the divine hierarchy. Thankfully Sofia didn’t call her on it, so she took another bite, then shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ll have to do some research.” _And Grandmother’s archives should be just the database to dive into_. Normally mortals were banned from accessing the Infernal archives just as they were those archives’ Divine counterpart, but Raven’s position as third in line for Hild’s position through Urd muddied the waters. She’d been careful to avoid using the archives enough to unmuddy them, but this involved Akane so she should be all right thanks to the promises both Asgard and Niflheim had made to look out for her former fiancée. She hoped.

/oOo\

Luna silently slipped out of the family room. She suspected that Raven had been keeping a close eye on her and her husband, but the two had made sure she was watching when they settled down behind the couch across from her, and Artemis had left his tail out in plain sight. Hopefully the Titan would assume Luna was still with Artemis, and be distracted by the debate currently raging over whether Idola should accept the memories of her past life immediately or wait until after they’d dealt with whatever emergency had prompted her vision the previous morning. (Idola had already made it clear that she _would_ accept them — Luna suspected that she longed for more of a family than her grandfather, her father’s abandonment after her mother’s death had hit her hard.)

Once out in the hall, she looked carefully around to make sure no one was watching, then _spun_ in place as if she was chasing her tail. When she stopped she looked around to orient herself in the small private office, then looked up at the tall (for a Japanese), emerald-haired woman dressed in a smart business jacket and skirt staring down at her from her office chair.

“Luna, _please_ don’t tell me that there’s a problem with the Senshi,” Setsuna pleaded with a groan.

Luna hopped up onto her lap, then the desk top to sit up at attention. “I don’t know. We had a visitor drop in on last night’s fight, but Usagi was too tired to tell me about it when she got home and I didn’t have a chance to sneak away until now.” She quickly reported everything she’d been told and observed about Raven and her relationship with Rei in a previous life to a Setsuna growing increasingly more pale. “Setsuna, I think she knows more about reincarnation than she let on. If she does —”

“Then she probably suspects that this isn’t the first lifetime that the Senshi have remembered their past lives.” Setsuna collapsed back into her chair and rubbed at tired eyes. “I suppose it doesn’t matter, with the way things are going with my current case I’d probably have to reveal myself to them anyway, along with Hali and Malaina. It’ll probably take all eight of us to deal with this mess. Wait!” She straightened, eyes brightening. “Raven said that the two people in the vision with the girl were named Kuno ... Tatewaki and Kodachi, you said?” At Luna’s nod, she continued, “And completely insane, both of them — they must be the ones performing the summoning with their daughter as the sacrifice! If I can find them first ...” She gazed off into empty space for a moment with the unfocused look that Luna had long since realized meant the ancient woman was performing a rapid-fire calculation of the odds, then refocused on Luna. “Get back there now, let Artemis know I want both of you back here after your charges are asleep. You’ll need the time to tell me _everything_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, it's a bit of a talkfest, but I didn't really feel like I could skip any of it and I like to think it showcases relationships a bit. Still, the next chapter should have more action to it.
> 
> Oh, and the Senshi's Greek names were chosen with malice aforethought. Still, once the Senshi decide to take Raven completely into their confidence those names won't be used much.


	7. Awakenings

“— all agreed that it’s best I regain Akane’s memories now rather than after the current crisis?”

Raven glanced around at the other four Senshi (Chibi-Celina was reading a book), to all appearances paying full attention while keeping half her focus on the doorway to the room (a skill she had acquired soon after the Teen Titans had formed — Robin was a fine leader, but it had taken him a little while to learn to sort the important facts from the minutia during the regular meetings he insisted on). Elysia and Sofia nodded their agreement, Celina was bored, and though Cytheria had a mulishly stubborn look on her face she didn’t object.

Then Raven sensed Luna slip back through the doorway and under one of the couches, and carefully kept her eyes on the Senshi as the cat made her way around the room back to her husband. Let the two think they’d put one over on her. “Your grandfather’s already given his own blessing,” she said to Idola, “so when do you want to do it?”

Idola took a deep breath to steady herself — she was faking it well. “Does now work?”

Raven glanced out the window at the darkening sky as the sun sank toward the horizon, and nodded. “It works very well, actually. Unlike me, you’ll be getting all your memories in one massive surge. Did you recover your Cretan memories like that?”

Sofia spoke up. “No, they came in batches, mostly in dreams. They’re more like watching movies than actual memories.”

“Oh, well, I don’t know if there’ll be dreams, but Mama Mara suggested that a good night’s sleep while things settle would help.” _And as the Norn of the Past, she should know_.

Idola asked, “So, what do I do?”

Raven unbuckled the one item from her uniform that she was wearing, her belt of garnets and fake gold links, laid it on her lap, and fiddled with one of the garnets. It popped off, and a starlike point of light rose up from the empty setting, and she cupped her hands underneath it, then turned to offer it to the raven-haired girl on the couch beside her. “Here, this is the entire sum of your life as Akane. You need to swallow it.” She hesitated, then softly added, “Idola, are you sure about this? With those memories come responsibilities, to Akane’s sisters of no one else.”

“I’m sure,” Rei stated firmly, however much the butterflies in her stomach were shouting their presence to the empath. “And call me Rei. Idola is who I was, and useful for Senshi business when I’m not Mars, but Rei is who I am.” The other Senshi gasped, but she just shrugged. “Do you really think I’ll be able to hide my identity from another family? Especially when they want to meet my friends?” she asked the other girls.

They exchanged glances — even Chibi-Moon distracted from her book — then Sophia replied, “Perhaps not, but you should have still consulted us.”

“Maybe, but ... I don’t think we really have time for that.”

“Oh.” Raven had to keep from lifting an eyebrow when the tension in the room jumped, even if none of the other girls visibly reacted. Apparently, this group took Rei’s visions _very_ seriously.

Sofia turned to their guest. “Well, like Rei said, if you know who she is, you’ll know who the rest of us are. So, she’s Hino Rei, I’m Mizuno Ami, Celina is Tsukino Usagi, Cytheria is Aino Minako and Elysia is Kino Makoto. Oh, and the half-sized is Chiba Usagi, so we call her Chibi-Usa when Usagi isn’t calling her ‘Spore’.”

The pink-haired barely-teen looked up long enough to stick her tongue out at Ami, then pretended to return her attention to her book as soft laughter filled the room.

Raven could feel the tension ease. _I wonder if that’s what she intended?_ There was no way to know, so she shrugged off the thought and turned back to Rei, again offering the tiny star floating above her cupped hands.

Rei hesitantly cupped her hands under Raven’s, and the Titan slid hers out from underneath to allow the star to settle into its new owner’s palms. “Just swallow it, you said?” Raven nodded, and she lifted her palms and tilted her hands so the floating star slid into her open mouth. She closed her mouth and swallowed.

Everyone waited with bated breath as a slow minute ticked by, then Rei gusted out her lungful of air. “Well, _that_ was anti-cli —” she started to say, when she stiffened, eyes widening before they lost all focus. She slowly lifted into the air, straightening, her head tilted back, her arms wide and hands spread open. As Raven jerked to her feet, shining ribbons of a script none of the Senshi could recognize spun out of Rei’s fingertips to spiral around her slowly spinning body, her mouth fell open and pure, glorious sound poured out like two voices wordlessly harmonizing to a song that everyone there had never heard but felt like they’d known all their lives, deep in their souls.

Then the song softened, the whirling ribbons faded, and Rei slowly lowered until sound and light vanished as her feet touched the floor with her facing Raven. The two women stared at each other for a long moment as the rest of the room struggled to push through their shock, then just as Rei’s wild-eyed grandfather burst into the room her eyes rolled up and she collapsed into Raven’s arms.

/oOo\

Rei’s eyes flew open as she snapped upright on her futon at her Senshi communicator’s the soft alarm. She frantically looked around before sagging at the familiar sight of her night-dark bedroom.

Ignoring for a moment the alarm’s slowing strengthening chime in her mind’s ear, her hand rose to rub at her throat as her mind replayed the moment when Ranma’s ... when Raven’s sword had almost removed her head from her shoulders. A moment that she ... that Akane had maneuvered for, had actually felt betrayed when a goddess stepped in to save her life. And she could still remember the overwhelming joy that she ... that Akane had felt when she learned that her attempted sacrifice had been enough to save the boy/girl she loved from the terrible fate her earlier actions had condemned that boy/girl to. Just before everything had come crashing down again when yet another sacrifice had been asked of them both.

The rising volume of the alert finally shook her from the memories of that earlier life clashing with her present, and she hastily wiped at tear-damp cheeks before summoning her communicator and silenced the alarm by accepting the call. “Yes?” she whispered.

“ _We’ve got another signal,_ ” came Ami’s voice. “ _A strong one._ ”

“We’ll be right there,” Rei replied, then looked around and realized that she was alone in the bedroom — the futon that Raven had used the night before was again laid out, but empty. “Correction, _I’ll_ be there, Raven’s gone.”

“ _She is? I wonder — later. Get down here now._ ”

“Right.” Rei ended the call and sent the communicator back to her ‘Bag of Holding’, rose from her futon, and hastily stripped off her sleepwear before grabbing whatever clothes were closest in her closet. She’d be going to the fight in her uniform, of course, but she might have to revert to her civilian identity at some point and it would be very embarrassing and a little chilly if that civilian identity was wearing nothing but her night-shirt and panties. Once dressed she closed her eyes, focused ... and in a flash of light was dressed in her magical red-and-white fuku with its purple bow-tie and gold and ruby tiara.

Change complete, she hurried from her room to let her grandfather know she would be out, then headed for the door to the side yard from which she could anonymously roof-hop away ... only to pause by the doorway to the family room, as warring memories.

Her memories of that room went back to her earliest recollections: vague memories of playing on the floor as her mother watched, later memories of playing with her grandfather after her mother died and her father abandoned her, studying for school, praying at the family altar, the Senshi meetings over the past few years. And now, Akane’s memories of long hours spent kneeling before a low table as she practiced creating ofuda — a skill she had actually mastered more thoroughly than Rei had — under the watchful eye of the shinto priest that had agreed to become her sensei, had trained her in kenjutsu and the making of ofuda, and the nature of demons, both types and individuals. The same shinto priest whose bedroom Rei had just left. _No wonder he seemed to be amused by Raven’s story this morning! I wonder what happened to my katana?_

As much as she still missed her mother and hated her father, she had to conclude that Rei had had the better of it over Akane — Rei had had her grandfather for her entire life, after all, rather than the less than a year that a suicidally depressed Akane had, and as family rather than as sensei. As hard as Kasumi had tried, that counted for quite a lot.

_Like Ami said, later. You have a demon to hunt_.

/oOo\

Raven leaned back in her chair and rubbed at tired eyes. Putting Akane ... _Rei, remember, that! She may have the Tomboy’s memories now, but that_ doesn’t _mean she’s actually her._ Putting _Rei_ to bed, waiting until the Senshi left and Rei’s grandfather went to bed before flying to the nearest portal to Niflheim, then pushing her way through the layers of bureaucracy to gain access to a Nidhog terminal had taken hours, and now more hours spent reviewing file after file ... so _many_ files — and she had barely scratched the surface.

_Of course I’ve barely scratched the surface, those girls have been doing this for literally_ millennia _! Though at least now I get Usagi’s threat to become a nun_. She giggle as she remembered how Chibi-Usa had blown it off — the munchkin was right, considering the way Princess Celina and Prince Alexander had been circling each other for life after life, it hadn’t been much of a threat.

“I’m glad you find restricted files so amusing.”

Raven whirled in her chair to find Hild leaning against the cubicle doorway ... the formerly closed and locked doorway. Hild was in her chibi-form, the illusion of a too-cute-for-words platinum blonde child spoiled by the sardonic twist to her smile, her too-knowing eyes (and the weariness in their depths, for those with the eyes to see), and the waves of Power rolling off her.

“Grandmother!” the redhead exclaimed, then hastily babbled, “I have a right to be here, I’m researching Rei’s — _Akane’s_ situation, I have a right to know —”

“Enough!” Raven broke off at Hild’s command and for along moment the Daimakaicho held her sardonic smile before straightening and stepping into the cubicle. She turned to slide the door closed and lock it, then turned back around and grew to her full adult form. A moment later she had swept Raven up into a hug. “It’s good to see you, my little chick.”

“Grandmother!”

Hild giggled at the change of tone in Raven’s exclamation from panicked to accusatory, and her half-demon granddaughter relaxed in her embrace. For a few seconds the two luxuriated in the moment, then Hild reluctantly let go and stepped back. “I know all about your ... reason ... for being here — Anastasiya was under my orders to let you through, but she was _also_ under order to let me know immediately, whatever the time or what I might be doing. As excuses go for violating the rule against mortal access, yours wasn’t bad. But that’s not why I’m here. I also received a report from Thought, it seems _Akane_ is in another fight.”

A moment later Hild was alone in the cubicle. She smiled, lifting a hand to gently rub where her granddaughter had kissed her cheek before rushing away. Yes, Raven was _very_ different from the stunned, fragile wreck she had been a year ago just after she’d killed her father ... again. Her collapse after returning to her childhood home had _not_ been pretty. _Urd, Mara, Lind, you did_ good _work. Thank you_. Though she’d never say that out loud, of course, except perhaps to her daughter and heir, in the privacy of her quarters — she had an image to maintain, after all! Speaking of which ...

She reassumed her usual sardonic smile, with a distinct hint of pride added in, before striding from the room. She didn’t want those underlings that had seen her enter Raven’s cubicle and then Raven’s hasty exit to think her granddaughter was falling out of favor, after all. Considering her granddaughter’s chosen lifestyle on Midgard, that would be ... bad.


	8. Reunited

As Mars cleared the peak of the last building between her and the rest of the Senshi she actually blew her landing, an ankle twisting under her to dump her to the slanted roof and roll her off the edge. Her arms flailed as she fell spinning, but the wall was _just_ out of reach and then she slammed back first onto the small home’s thin strip of lawn — better than the concrete sidewalk one arm bounced off of, but not by much.

“Ow.”

Then she was staring up at the reason she’d found herself flat on her back.

In the two years that she’d been a demon hunter masquerading as a superhero she’d seen more than her fair share of strange beings, pretty much all of them trying to kill her and her friends as a prelude to killing a whole lot of other people. But she’d never imagined that she’d be facing off against a toy Godzilla — eight feet tall and heat distortion flickering about its mouth but still clearly a toy, all shiny plastic and articulated hips and shoulders (though the joints were window-dressing, from the way it was bending at the knees without them).

Then its jaws widened and with a high-pitched shriek a stream of pure _heat_ jetted out. She instinctively lifted her arms and yanked her knees to her chest, and her own flame-shield sprang into existence to barely cover her body. The heat jet smashed against the shield, and to her relief splashed instead of breaking through. From the ‘feel’ she was getting it was only mildly tainted by demonic energy, just enough that she couldn’t control it without a dangerous level of concentration. (Unlike the taint of the hellfire wielded by Jack o’ the Lantern the previous night, the mere thought of _those_ flames made her shudder.)

“Mars!” That shout came from multiple throats, and a lightning bolt forked down out of the clear night to slam into the monster (Jupiter was pulling out all the stops). It raised its head to shriek to the sky only for a shining gold chain to snake out from behind it and wrap around its muzzle, snapping its jaws shut. It seemed to swell for a moment as an arc of its heat breath exploded out of its mouth around its teeth, and then the chain snapped.

Mars was already rolling away and to her feet as Venus’s expected scream pierced the night (Venus was going to need Moon’s help again, dealing with the migraine from that feedback), and as the Godzilla turned toward the sound the first two of Mars’s fire arrows pierced its neck even as she continued to backpedal. They guttered for a few moments and burned out, leaving two small downward trails of melted plastic. She shouted, “Mercury, weaknesses!”

“It doesn’t have any, we’ll have to brute force it!” Her friend’s answering shout from within the home Mars had fallen off of was followed by a spike of silvery-blue ice thrusting from the ground directly underneath the Godzilla, only to bounce it into the air rather than piercing it. Her blue-haired teammate appeared in the massive burnt-edged hole in the home’s wall Mars hadn’t noticed thanks to her focus on her opponent.

From the other side of the Godzilla, Venus barked, “Report!” Her shout was punctuated by another gold chain, though this time it only smacked into the back of its head just as it was turning to face Mars again at the same instant she fired another flame arrow, just missing a huge glass eye.

Moon appeared in the hole next to Mercury, her face blank and a young child huddled in her arms. “Mercury’s ice put the fires are out, but there are two burnt adult corpses.”

A new orphan.

Mar’s vision went red, and she charged. Alerted by her shriek of rage, the Godzilla began to turn toward her just as she reached it and the katana-shaped flame-blade in her two-handed grip sheared down into its shoulder joint, drops of liquid plastic spattering across her arms above her white gloves and along one cheek, barely missing an eye.

Then the Godzilla’s arm fell away as her sword-flame burst out its armpit, spattering more liquid plastic across her bare legs, and Mars shouted her triumph — just as it whipped around and its (fortunately unspiked) tail slammed up into her gut. She felt at least one lower rib snap as the impact lifted her off her feet and hurtled her down the street. _This is going to hurt_ —

It did, but not from the expected collision with the pavement and its accompanying road rash. Instead, pain spiked through her when she slammed into someone’s arms, sending them both sliding along the street. When she blinked the pain-tears clear she found herself staring up at Raven’s pale face inches from her own, the Titan’s hood thrown back to reveal her shoulder-length flaming red hair.

“You okay, Ak — Mars?”

“Yes.” Mars nodded, fighting not to wince as the motion shifted her broken ribs. From the way Raven’s mouth tightened, her attempt wasn’t very successful. She stared up at Raven’s face as memories of their previous lives flashed through her mind — _Ranma’s_ face, for all that she could see nothing of her former fiancée beyond the red hair. If anything, it was hints of herself ... Akane, rather ... that she could see in the shape of jaw, mouth, nose....

And it didn’t matter, it was Ranma. She clutched at the other girl, ignoring the sharp stab of pain, and said the one thing she’d never quite gotten around to saying at the end of their last lives. “Ranma, I’m so _sorry!_ ”

They both looked down the street at another hissing roar to see the Godzilla stomping toward them, ignoring the ice spikes stabbing at it, the golden chains snapping at the back of its head, even another massive lightning strike as Mercury, Venus and Jupiter tried to distract it. Fortunately, her violation of its bodily integrity seemed to have done something besides shear off an arm, its attempt to breathe out another heat ray only resulted in a short spike.

Raven knelt to gently lower Mars to the street. “Nothin’ ta be sorry for, Akane, at the end ya did good.” Then, voice going cold, she added, “Ya ... you just rest here, and I’ll finish what you started.” Mars shivered at that tone, reminded of the last time Ranma had used the Soul of Ice. Though this time she couldn’t feel any cold radiating off Raven.

Raven rose to her feet, her hood falling back, and raised her hands in front of her chest. Darkness coalesced around them, a darkness that made Mars cringe as she felt her gut twist at the too-familiar sensation of powerful demonic energy. Then the redhead thrust her hands forward, and a ribbon of that tainted energy snaked through the air to the approaching monster ... and flowed into it through the gaping hole of the absent arm. Raven waited, pouring more and more energy into it, waited as it stomped toward them ... waited ... and just as the Godzilla was beginning to bend toward her, its jaws gaping, she growled, “ _Nobody_ hurts my ... friends!”

She _wrenched_ her hands wide apart. The black ribbon linking her to the Godzilla tore, the rip racing along its length, into the monster ... and it ripped apart, its two halves flying through the air to smash into the homes on each side of them to the sound of shattering glass as one half smashed into a window.

The ribbons vanished, replaced by two coruscating masses around Raven’s fists. She waited, tensed and ready for more action, but the pieces of the Godzilla simply lay there, so she finally relaxed and dropped to her knees to cautiously help a grimacing Mars lift up to a sitting position leaning against her.

A Moon no longer holding the child came running up, and Mars realized that the sky behind her leader was lightening ... dawn was coming. Mars glanced past the blonde to see the other Senshi walking toward them, Jupiter now carrying the child (clearly a boy, now that they were close enough for Mars to see the race cars on his pajamas).

Without even waiting for Mercury to scan her, Moon placed a hand high on Mars’s stomach. Mars sighed with relief when the hand began to glow and her pain faded to a faint throbbing.

As soon as the others arrived Mercury summoned a crystal and began scanning the two, while Venus gushed, “That was so cool! Raven, I’ve seen the soles of your boots, there’s no way you should have just slid like that when you caught Mars, how did you _do_ it?”

Raven grinned and twisted so that the patterned rubber of one of her soles was visible — then the same black energy that had surrounded her hands seem to ooze out of the boot to cover the sole, leaving it looking slickly black just before it reshaped itself into a thin blade running the length of her foot. “A little trick I picked up over the last year while training with Robin, let’s me ice skate practically anywhere.”

“A nice technique, I wish I’d thought of it,” Mercury said absentmindedly as she switched her scan from Mars to Raven. (Mars’s scan had revealed only a few flickers of red, already fading under Moon’s continued ministrations.) “So Mars, where did that flame sword come from? You’ve never manifested that before, and headlong charges aren’t really your style.”

Mars both felt and heard Raven chuckle. “Go all Tomboy on us, did you?” the Titan asked. “Though that sword is certainly more effective than the Hammer.”

Before the now-blushing Mars could respond, Mercury continued, “And Raven, while we appreciate your timing, just where were you when I called?”

“Doing research.”

“Research?” Mercury glanced up for a moment before returning her attention to the scan. “You’re fine. Researching what? And where at this time of the night?”

“Researching the Senshi. And remember my mothers? I have access to information most people don’t, so long as I don’t push it.”

Mercury froze for a moment before finishing returning the crystal to her ‘bag of holding’. “And did you learn anything?” she asked with forced nonchalance.

Healing done, Moon rose to her feet and reached down to help up Mars and then Raven. “I suppose that means you have to tell us all about it,” she said, grimacing. “We’ll meet this afternoon — wait, there’s the debriefing on the fight with ... Jack ‘o the Lantern, was it? And I suppose the Godzilla toy, now. It’ll have to be tonight, but Luna and Artemis —”

“No! No, without the cats.”

“Without the —” Mars paled. “The Cat Fist?”

“No, not the Cat Fist. Reliving it again in my dreams was no fun, but this time I had my mothers to help me get over it. I didn’t freak out when I saw them yesterday, I wouldn’t now. I don’t _like_ cats, but that’s all.”

Mars glanced about at the curious expressions on the other Senshi’s faces, but at Raven’s faint shake of her head she let it go. “So why not Luna and Artemis?”

“Because ...” Raven hesitated, sighed. “Because they haven’t been ... completely forthcoming.”

The Senshi stiffened, and Raven waved her hands. “Not in a bad way! They aren’t _deceiving_ you, exactly, they just ... aren’t telling you everything they know. Neither has Chibi-Moon, I think.”

Moon snorted. “Now, _that_ I can believe. So let’s head over to —” She paused when Mercury laid a hand on her shoulder. The Senshi of Ice nodded to the boy still huddled in Jupiter’s arms — unconscious, as best Mars could tell. “Find one of the neighbors that can take the boy, and I’ll let our contact know where he is and why. I’ll handle the debriefing this afternoon as usual, and we can meet ... tomorrow at the Arcade for lunch? Tell Artemis and Luna we’re having some girl time, they’ll be happy to get a chance for some alone time of their own. But right now, we should head home.”

Raven glanced at the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon. “Whoa, I didn’t realize it was this late. Won’t your families wonder where you are?”

Venus’s expression went cold, and Raven flinched. “No. Theirs know about us, and mine don’t care.” Raven blanched, her mouth opening and closing as she searched for something to say, and Venus turned away. “I’ll meet you at the Arcade.”

/\

Raven and Rei walked into Rei’s bedroom, Raven stifling a yawn. It had been a _long_ night after a previous long night. She unfastened her dark blue hood and cloak, unbuckled her gold-and-garnet belt and started to slip out of the black leotard, but paused when Rei pushed the two futons together and spread the sheets and blanket across them both. “Uh ... Rei?” The other girl’s emotions were the oddest mix of joy, embarrassment, uncertainty ... love....

Rei just smiled, though her cheeks were red. “I’m not pushing, Ran ... Raven. I’m not even really sure I can swing that way, even for you, and —” She lifted a hand to cover a yawn of her own. “— and even if I was, we’d both probably fall asleep before we got half-started. I just want ... to be close to you tonight, that’s all.” Her smile turned into a grin. “Besides, it’ll keep you from running off again.”

“Yeah, right,” Raven snorted, “if I tried I’d probably fall on my face.” She walked over to the window to wag a finger at the two ravens perched in the tree just outside (ignoring caws that sounded suspiciously like laughter) before closing the curtain — a black-out curtain. She suspected the Senshi saw a lot more late nights than the Titans did, thanks to their chosen prey.

The room dark again, she went back to stripping out of her uniform. “Rei ... ya know — _you_ know, your sisters are gonna — _going to_ , if Mama Lind catches me talking like Ranma again, she is _going to_ knock me silly!”

“Fanatical about proper Japanese?”

“No, military. She says sloppy talking is a sign of sloppy thinking, and she _really_ didn’t appreciate what happened to my grammar when I started reliving Ranma’s life. And she’s the one that started my retraining in martial arts.”

Rei giggled and Raven felt her heart lift at the sound, along with the taste of Rei’s amusement. Already, the two were as ... _relaxed_ together as they’d ever been. Before, there had always been a tension between them born of other people’s expectations.

 _No more_ , Raven thought, slightly lightheaded with relief (though that could have just been the fatigue talking). She _really_ didn’t want to disturb the mood, but ... “Your sisters knew I intended to find you. They’re ... eager —”

Rei finished slipping on her own night shirt (a process Raven had been careful not to pay much attention to), surprisingly calm. “This afternoon, when we wake up.” She slipped under the blanket.

Raven slipped on her own borrowed shirt and quickly joined her. “Good night, Tomboy.”

“Good _morning_ , Baka.”

Ten minutes later the door slid open just enough for Rei’s grandfather to observe the sleeping pair with a gentle smile before sliding the door closed again and heading off for breakfast. He was going to enjoy teasing his granddaughter and her new (old) friend (love/who-knew-what) _so_ much when they woke up....


	9. Making New Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, a little late, I've actually had it mostly done for almost a week while I finished a little research. But I didn't let the delay slow me down, I've been working on _The Unexpected Hobbit_ as well, almost a thousand words into the next chapter there so I've only lost a day due to a cold! I really do think I'm _finally_ getting back into the swing of things....

Kuno Tatewaki (he still thought of himself as a Kuno, even after over a decade with a false family name) strode into the kitchen fresh from his shower. He hadn’t been so distracted during the morning ‘visit’ with his daughter that he hadn’t noticed how Hotaru’s toy bear’s eyes had begun to glow, and now he was eager to discover the results.

His ‘wife’ was laying out a tradition Japanese breakfast of steamed rice and miso soup on the table. (They had shift to more Western food the same way they had so much else in their lives, but he had found himself enjoying an occasional return to what they had been.) When he strode over to the knick knack on the window sill she flinched, and when he tapped the crystal it wasn’t hard to see why — the power it had absorbed from the morning’s rape was nowhere near the level it should have attained. Frowning, he turned to Kodachi. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Kodachi replied, unable to look him in the eyes As she placed the last of the spoons. “The crystal finally turned blue as it was supposed to and the glow was strengthening, when it just went out. Something must have interfered with the ... the ritual at the other end.”

She was probably right, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up and the back of Tatewaki’s hand smashed into Kodachi’s cheek. She spun with the blow and fell against the kitchen counter, and Tatewaki loomed over her, fists clenched. “You coddle her too much, it is interfering with our purpose,” he said, voice cold. “We have come too far to fail now, treat her like the tool she is or you will regret it.”

She stared up at him, face blank with shock. When she didn’t reply, he demanded, “Do understand?”

“I understand,” she finally replied. Her voice was even, but he thought he could see a hint of hatred flickering to life in her eyes. _Good, stoke that hate, I will need it_. Though he would need to be more careful, going forward. Unlike himself, it had been years since his sister had practiced her own Art of Rhythmic Gymnastics, but she had also been a skilled chemist and herbalist.

But that was for later, and he sat at the table. “Then hurry, I can’t afford to be late for work.”

/\

It was through the news report on the radio at his boring (but safely anonymous) desk job that he heard of the Godzilla toy that had come to life to murder a married couple before being dealt with by the Sailor Senshi, that he knew what had gone wrong that morning — or at least, not as ‘right’ as it could have.

/oOo\

Chibi-Usa was a _very_ frustrated young girl, and one growing increasingly disenchanted with the past. The original reason for her time-tripping had been desperate, and she had to admit that seeing the young versions of her father and aunts had been cool. But then her parents had (privately) told her she had to go back with their younger versions, and when she asked how long she had to stay, all they had said was, “As long as you stayed.” But her mother had been a world-class ditz when she was young, the accommodations were primitive, the school she had to attend was _boring_. And now the monsters were attacking at night and she wasn’t allowed to go along (or even know about it, until it was all over) ... and she was desperately lonely. Oh, she had classmates that she pretended were friends — that _thought_ they were friends — but she couldn’t tell them _anything_.

It was getting harder and harder to keep up her brave front. (Though Aunt Rei’s manga collection was cool, and being there when Aunt Raven first showed up had _definitely_ been cool.)

_Still_ , she thought as she stared out the classroom window up at the clouds slowly drifting by, _the afternoon class trip to Tokyo Disney ought to be amusing_.

/oOo\

Rei found herself clutching Raven’s hand as they walked toward a small, brightly painted house with flowers on the stoop. When they’d decided that Raven would stay with Rei and her grandfather ... at least for the moment ... the Titan had made a quick run to pick up her luggage and Rei had had to giggle at the T-shirt emblazoned ‘Version 2.0’. But the Senshi of Fire had no urge to giggle now, as they approached the front door.

Raven gently squeezed her hand. “Hey, it’ll be fine. They’ll be so happy to see you, you could claim to be an axe murderer and they wouldn’t care.”

Rei quirked an eyebrow at the odd phrase, but was too nervous to pursue it. “This is ridiculous,” she hissed. “I was less scared in the middle of a fight we had to win to keep Japan from turning into a steaming, ocean-filled crater!”

Raven lifted their joined hands to poke Rei in the ribs, giggling as she squirmed away. “The great Akane admitting she can’t handle anything?” she teased, then quickly added as Rei’s temper began to rise, “If it makes you feel any better I don’t know how long I would’a stood there trying to force myself ta press a doorbell, if Auntie Bell hadn’t come with me. Like she told me, that was just the end of the world, this is Family.”

Rei was startled into laughter. “The great Ranma admitting he ... she’s scared? Wow, you _have_ changed!”

Raven’s smile vanished, and Rei’s heart stopped for a moment as she felt demonic power gathering. Then the sensation vanished and Raven was shaking her head with a wry smile. “We were both idiots, weren’t we? Come on, after my phone call saying we were coming yer sisters must be frantic.” She gently pushed Rei toward the door.

Rei took a deep breath, then knocked. Soon — much too soon — there came the sound of footsteps approaching and the door opened, and Rei’s jaw dropped. “K-K-Kasumi?”

The woman that had opened the door was undeniably her sister, but she was old! Well, not _old_ , per se, but definitely older, a few pounds heavier, her brown hair faded and streaked with white, lines on her face that hadn’t been there before. _Of course, she looks older, it’s been nineteen years_ , Rei berated herself as she struggled to fight through her shock ... but somehow as she had immersed herself in her life as Akane that fact hadn’t registered, everything seemed like it had happened yesterday....

Then she was enveloped in her sister’s arms, Kasumi’s tears wet on her shoulder as her own eyes began to overflow.

“Kasumi, is that them?” The familiar voice came from inside the house, and a moment later Nabiki appeared in the doorway. Her appearance, such as Rei could see through watery eyes over Kasumi’s shoulder, wasn’t as much of a shock — the middle Tendo ( _‘Tenoh’ now, remember that!_ ) looked much the same as she had, whether because of good genes or a bottle her hair was the same shade and even cut in the same style as she’d always favored and she’d kept working out at least enough to stay toned.

Nabiki’s lips stretched into the same snarky smile that had been such a common feature before her little sister had helped kill Ranma and everything had gone to hell. “I guess so. Come on in before you set the neighbors to gossiping.”

Kasumi hastily broke the embrace with a squawk, glared at Nabiki for a moment, then pulled Rei through the door and down the hallway behind Nabiki, a grinning Raven following along and swinging the door shut behind them. “Come one, you have to tell us _everything_ —”

She broke off with another squawk when the door closed, and Nabiki whirled around and pulled both Kasumi and Rei into a strong embrace. “Welcome back, little sis,” she whispered as tears began to flow down her cheeks.

/\

A Raven clamping down on her empathic sense to dim the sheer joy hammering into her edged around the group hug in the hallway and wandered deeper into the house, only now wondering what to do with herself for the next while — there was no way she would be anything but a fifth wheel with the family reunion taking place, but she couldn’t exactly leave without Rei, either. _I wonder if Mom would like an early din_ —

“Hello, Ranma.”

Raven turned and smirked at the strong, gravelly, ancient woman voice that hadn’t changed in two decades. “Hello, ol’ Ghoul, yer being remarkably formal.”

The elegantly dressed light sea-green-haired girl and the androgynous platinum blonde beside her dressed in men’s clothing standing behind Ku Lon blanched, but the tiny ancient prune of a woman balanced on her staff merely cackled. “I can’t exactly call you sonny-boy, now can I?”

“No, that doesn’t really work anymore.” Raven managed to keep the smirk on her face even as her momentary humor was washed away by the memory of the _other_ nickname that the ancient Amazon had regularly used that was no longer appropriate — ‘son-in-law’.

The sea green-haired girl — Michiru, if Raven remembered correctly from the stories Nodoka told her of her kinda-sorta spiritual half-sister a couple days ago (like any good parents, the three women’s daughters had played a major role in their stories) — looked over Raven’s shoulder at the group hug still going on just inside the doorway. “So that’s Akane?”

Raven’s eyes widened. “You know?”

“Oh, yes,” the platinum blonde — Haruka — replied, “yesterday Auntie Nodoka and the mamas sat us down and retold us some of it.”

“And the act you put on pretending I hadn’t already told you everything was excellent,” Ku Lon softly added with another cackle.

Raven’s eyes widened even further, and she glanced at the tiny ancient in silent question: ‘ _Everything?_ ’ Ku Lon gave miniscule nod and Raven gusted out a breath, then nodded toward the reunited sisters and just as softly said, “Well, while _that’s_ going on, why don’t we go somewhere and you tell me how much your mothers _think_ you know. Just so I can keep my stories straight, you understand.”

Ku Lon’s eyebrows rose. “Planning in advance and not just winging it? You _have_ changed.”

“Who hasn’t, after two decades?”

Ku Lon led the small party to the kitchen, and Raven took a seat at the kitchen table that doubled as a counter for food preparation. As the sisters-in-all-but-blood set out to make tea and Ku Lon sat cross-legged on the table across from their visitor, Raven leaned back in her chair and gazed curiously at the Amazon. “I can sense that you’re really happy to see me, but for the life of me I can’t think of why.” Glancing sideways at Haruka, she added, “We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.”

“No, we didn’t, but things change.” Ku Lon shrugged. “You weren’t surprised to see me, did you already know I was here, or did the mothers tell you?”

“I knew. I got an occasional glimpse of your lives while I was a young teenager, and a few more over the past year. And Auntie Bell told me a bit more.”

“Ah, so you probably aren’t aware that after your ... visit ... to Nyucheizu my situation there went from difficult to impossible. Since I had no future there, nor in truth wanted one with no kin left in the village, I sought out my last remaining family.” She nodded toward Haruka. “Nabiki wanted no part of me and Nodoka was torn, but Kasumi managed to talk them into letting me stay. They haven’t regretted it, nor have I.”

Haruka passed out tea cups to the two at the table while Michiru took a platter with more tea cups and a pot out to the reuniting sisters. The platinum blonde said, “Me neither, even if grandma gets too pushy about martial arts, sometimes.” She shrugged unconcernedly at Ku Lon’s glare. “Hey, I’m not an Amazon warrior and never will be. The Self Defense Force isn’t going to be getting into a ground war even if I wanted to sign up — I can get my adrenalin high more often on the race track — so all I really need is enough training to deal with anyone stupid enough t mess with me.”

Ku Lon sighed, but nodded. “Regretfully, she is right. Since she isn’t going to be a warrior, there is no purpose to devoting the hours needed to train as one. Still ...” She sighed, her eyes falling, her regret washing over Raven. “Ranma, the words you said when you took Haruka away from us, when you described Nyucheizu as a ‘backwater hellhole’ ... you were right. The way of life we are so proud of — that _I_ was so proud of — was great once but now dooms us to irrelevancy until the time comes some mandarin in Beijing takes notice of us and blots us out. Here, at least my great-great-granddaughter has a future ... and so do her children, if she ever has any.”

Haruka rolled her eyes, but laid a comforting hand on Ku Lon’s. But before she could say anything Nabiki’s shout reverberated through the house: “You grew up _where?_ ”

“What was _that_ about?” Haruka demanded.

Fighting to contain her giggles, Raven replied, “That was your mothers learning that Kami-sama has a sense of humor. Rei grew up as the granddaughter of the same priest that trained Akane during the year I was ... gone. So, Ku Lon, is there anywhere around here we could spar?”

“Really?” Ku Lon hesitated. “Ran — Raven, your ki levels —”

“My ki levels are crap, I know.” Raven winced, hoping her mothers wouldn’t learn how she’d started talking again. “Right now the only techniques I learned as Ranma that I can still use is the Soul of Ice and _maybe_ the Hiryu Shoten Ha — I haven’t been desperate enough yet to try and find out, these days I’m more of a distance fighter and I doubt I would last long enough to pull it off close up against someone powerful enough I’d need it. But I have some new techniques.” She lifted a hand and for a moment the black flames of her soul flickered about it.

Ku Lon’s eyebrows rose — after she’d been told of Raven’s visit she’d looked up footage of the Teen Titans in action, but now the demonic essence she was sensing confirmed what she’d heard. “I see. Unfortunately, this isn’t Nerima — there aren’t empty lots around where we can tear up the landscape. And perhaps it is just as well, you may be accustomed to the media attention such a fight would bring here, but the ‘Tenohs’ aren’t.”

Raven repressed another wince at the subtle reminder that linking Raven of the Teen Titans to her previous family would be a _bad_ idea. She twisted in her seat as a giggling Michiru reentered the kitchen and pulled out a chair next to Haruka. “So, what d’you ... what _do you_ guys do for fun?”

/oOo\

Chibi-Usa was feeling a lot better, now that she was away from the school. Sure, the rides at Tokyo Disney weren’t what they’d be up-time and she didn’t get the VIP treatment she’d received when she’d visited then, but Disney still had the magic (or better said, had had it earlier?) — and being surrounded by other children (mostly) enjoying themselves instead of security was a _big_ plus. _Maybe Mom and Dad weren’t_ complete _idiots when they sent me back, after all_ , she thought as the Gadget’s Go Coaster car climbed toward the top of the ride, then giggled. _Not that I’ll ever admit it!_

Then the momentary introspection was lost as the car rolled over the top and gathered speed — and the breeze snatched her wide-brimmed sun hat off her head and sent it soaring out of the ride toward Toontown’s central plaza.

As soon as the ride ended and the seat bars lifted, she dashed out to the central plaza and frantically looked around — there, next to one of the fish fountains! Another girl from her school was sitting on the shaped concrete bench that circled the fountain, the hat in her hand.

Chibi-Usa ran over. “Excuse me, but that hat is mine, I lost it on the rollercoaster. May I have it back?”

The girl looked up and smiled. “Of course, you saved me having to ask one of the actors where the lost and found is.”

She handed it over, and a relieved Chibi-Usa accepted it, then dropped onto the bench. The hat had been a gift from Mamo-chan (the one that wasn’t her father, yet), and she _really_ hadn’t wanted to lose it. As her heart slowed down, she looked over at her benefactor, frowning slightly. The girl was about her age, of course, since it was a trip for all her grade’s classes. She had raven-dark hair in a pageboy cut and was about Chibi-Usa’s height, but too thin and pale. And Chibi-Usa didn’t like the bruised look around her eyes — and for some reason, she felt like she ought to know her. “So what are ya doing over here?” She waved toward the line of other school children still waiting for the Gadget’s Go Coaster ride, and her own group heading toward the next one. “Everyone else is over there.”

The other girl shook her head with a forced smile. “Rollercoasters ... don’t appeal to me. And no one over there will miss me.”

Chibi-Usa glanced over at the class waiting in line, and bit back a growl when she realized that even the teacher was ignoring the pair. “Well, if they won’t miss you, then they won’t mind if you join my group. We’ve already been on the rollercoaster, come on!” Chiba-Usa jumped to her feet and pulled the other girl up. “My name’s Usagi, but I’m staying with ... a cousin with the same name so everybody calls me Chibi-Usa.”

The other girl’s smile had become more natural, and she allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. “I’m Hotaru.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, for the scene at Tokyo Disneyland I looked up the actual map and rides — I love the internet!


	10. Ancient History

Rei was almost bouncing along as she and Raven left the Tenoh home for the station, and Raven couldn’t keep from smiling as the raven-haired girl’s sheer joy at having more family than just her grandfather again washed around her. It seemed the visit had been as good for Rei as it had for Raven.

(Being able to learn something straight from the source about the lives of the Others that had gotten the lives she and Akane should have had — her empathic reading of Haruka’s addiction to the thrill of racing and enjoyment of flirting, Michiru’s deep love of music and the ocean, the intense affection they shared in spite of how different they were, all clear to her empathic sense — had done wonders for the jealousy that had choked her earlier.)

“I take it you had a good visit,” Raven finally remarked.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Rei caroled, turning her next few steps into a spin with her arms outstretched. “I can’t _believe_ how well Kasumi and Nabiki turned out after everything that happened! Though I can’t believe neither of them has found a man, yet — well, that Kasumi hasn’t. We’ll have to see if we can change that, though I don’t really know any single men their age, at least not well enough to risk setting them up. Maybe Grandfather does?”

Raven winced. “That ... wouldn’t turn out well,” she reluctantly stated. Apparently Rei had missed some of the undercurrents that had been obvious to the empath. She hesitated a moment, but reluctantly decided it was better to get it out in the open right away — the whole mess with Trigon had taught her a hard lesson in the downsides of keeping important secrets from those close to her.

A suddenly worried Rei was now walking backwards so she could stare at Raven, and the Titan motioned toward an alley between a couple of small stores. As soon as the pair was halfway down it, Raven stopped and closed her eyes, calming herself as she sought out any sources of emotion around them. She found none close enough to overhear anything even through the open windows above them so long as she and Rei kept their voices down, and opened her eyes to find an even more worried Rei waiting.

“So what’s wrong with trying to set up Kasumi and Nabiki? Is there something wrong with them?” she demanded as soon as she saw Raven open her eyes.

“There’s nothing _wrong_ with them, not exactly, it’s their own experiences from that mess....” Raven hesitated again, then glared at Rei, who shuddered at the sensation of demonic ‘presence’ she felt rising. “You are _not_ going to judge, we can’t understand what it was like for them.”

“No, of course not,” Rei hastily agreed. “But judge _what_?”

There was simply no way to sugarcoat it. “They’re sharing a bed, and not just for sleeping.” Rei’s jaw dropped as she fell back against the alley wall, her shock rolling over Raven, and the Titan hastily continued, “I’m guessing they have been almost since we … well, died, essentially ... when they were left alone with Nodoka and two babies to raise and us two to wait for. They’ve had no one but each other and the girls — and Nodoka and I guess Cologne — the whole nineteen years. That hasn’t —” ... _been exactly healthy_ , she finished in her mind. But that was as judgmental as she’d just told Rei not to be, even if true. “Anyway, don’t make a big deal out of it. Right or wrong, after so long they aren’t going to break up just because we’re back.”

“I … right … right … I can see that.”

The pair stood in silence for several minutes, Raven turning to lean against the wall beside Rei as the Senshi struggled with the revelation (turning beet red in the process, to Raven’s carefully hidden amusement as she guessed from Rei’s appalled embarrassment where her thoughts — or imagination, rather — had wandered... and just a hint of lust that possibly boded well for their own future relationship).

Finally, Raven took pity on Rei, deciding it was time to divert her thoughts to more comfortable subjects. She leaned sideways and nudged her, shoulder to shoulder. “Have you called your teammates, let them know you’re back on the clock?”

“Oh!” Rei jerked out of her dazed state and summoned her communicator. “No, I hadn’t, thank you for remembering.” She pressed a couple buttons, and a moment later the tiny screen lit up to show a serious-looking Ami.

“Rei, glad you’re back, how long till you’re home?”

Rei and Raven exchanged glances. “I don’t know, an hour or two?” Rei hazarded.

“Too long. Find a park and transform, we’ll come get you. We’re holding a meeting now instead of tomorrow.”

/oOo\

Raven was bent over with her hands on her knees, fighting not to heave ... again. The second time she’d been carried along by a Senshi teleport had been a lot less bright and noisy than the first one (a matter of distance, Mercury had said), but her nausea at the other end was no less intense.

When she was sure that if she spoke only words would come out, she looked up at Mercury. “I’ll let you scan me after the next time we do that, if you promise to try to find what’s wrong with me.”

Mercury’s eyes lit up, and Venus laughed. “You know she’ll be looking for an excuse for another teleport now, right? Or teleports, for the extra data, you know.”

Moon burst out, “Venus, that’s mean!”

Venus just laughed again at their leader’s outburst. “True, though.”

Raven groaned at the thought, and at the shamefaced expression on Mercury’s face. “On second thought, I’ll think I’ll just look into somehow extending my own range beyond three miles.”

A sympathetic Mars and Jupiter pulled Raven’s arms over their shoulders and helped her straighten. Mars said, “Come on, let’s get you into the house and I’ll get some Ohta Isen for the nausea. I just hope it’s strong enough, you’re looking pretty green — and as pale as you’ve gotten it stands out.”

/\

A Raven once again her natural color and dressed in her leotard and gold chain belt and her cloak billowing behind her (she’d changed into her uniform to match the Senshi) strode into the family room to find the others impatiently waiting — along with Artemis and Luna. At the sight of the cats her stride hitched for a moment before she went on to drop onto a couch with Mars sitting down beside her.

Moon looked up from where she’d been lying on the floor reading the manga she’d borrowed from Rei’s room (to Rei’s long-suffering sigh), then gracefully rolled into a cross-legged sitting position. “Oh, good, you’re here. So, Mercury, why the meeting now instead of tomorrow?”

Mercury stood up and stepped over where everyone could easily see her, her expression serious. “I wanted the meeting now so Chibi-Moon would still be at Disneyland. She’s too young for this.” She paused as everyone else straightened, and nodded. “You know I gave our debriefing to Nakano-san this afternoon. Well, he had something for us as well. Raven, you can share with Mars, the authorities weren’t aware you’re visiting until my debriefing so I don’t have a copy for you.” She reached up and her hand disappeared into her weapon space then reappeared with a handful of folders. (Stuff space? The Senshi didn’t seem to use it for storing weapons....) She passed them out to the Senshi, Artemis and Luna leaping up onto their partners’ shoulders so they could read them as well.

Once that was done, she continued, “It seems the only thing unique about our fight with Godzilla was its lethality, the other toys that have been coming to life and attacking people have been more nuisances than anything — though a few of the latest ones have put people in the hospital. Nakano-san had a few of the toys for me to scan, and while there’s a hint of demonic influence left on them I doubt there was ever enough to set off my crystal. Which is why this is the first we’re learning of it.”

The others started looking through the folders, and Venus frowned. “This is really bizarre, and this morning’s fight shows it’s serious, but it’s nothing Chibi-Moon can’t handle. So what haven’t you told us yet?”

“As usual, the authorities have been doing deep background checks of the families involved — and they’re _all_ families — and they may have found a ... a disturbing pattern.” The Senshi had stopped looking through the folders to refocus on their ‘intelligence officer’ as she fell silent, and Raven felt herself tightening at Mercury’s growing feelings of helpless anger. Finally, Mercury continued, “Nakano-san thinks all the toys belonged to abused children.”

Raven’s vision flashed red. She snarled, “Who?”

Venus stepped between her and Mercury, glowing chains wrapped around each forearm up to her hands and hanging from her fists’ grip like whips. Jupiter and Moon were scrambling up from their chairs and couches, when Raven felt hands gently grip each shoulder from behind. “Easy, Ranma, I’m sure Nakano-san will see to it that the children are looked after and the guilty punished.”

The calm certainty that accompanied the words, ‘flowing’ through Mars’ hands on her shoulders, punctured Raven’s growing fury and the red faded from her vision. She found herself hovering a few inches above the floor, dark flames flickering around her fists. She slowly pulled her power back into her soul and uncurled her fists as she settled to the floor. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she muttered.

“ ‘Sorry ‘bout that’?” Jupiter repeated incredulously, lightning leaping from fist to fist and crawling up her arms and across her shoulders to lifted the strands of hair that had worked free from her ponytail away from her head. “What _was_ that?”

Raven realized she was rubbing the back of her head with one hand and jerked it down. “You know I’m half demon, but all my powers come from the half of my soul that’s demonic ... and so does my temper. I’ve got it under control.” _Mostly_.

“That was not noticeably under —” Venus began, only to break off when Moon lay a hand on her arm.

“It’s okay.” Venus, Mercury and Jupiter turned to stare at her and Luna began to protest, but Moon cut her off with a wave of a hand. “Sure, Raven got angry, but she got angry at the right people. It’s okay.” She grinned at Raven. “Though those red, glowing eyes are really scary.”

Raven grinned back and shrugged. “Beast Boy says the same thing, says the jolt to the heart is good exercise.”

Moon laughed and plopped back down on a couch, motioning for everyone else to do the same. As everyone but Mercury followed along (Jupiter and Venus somewhat reluctantly), Mars exclaimed, “That’s why you only sometimes feel like a demon! When you’re relaxed you aren’t summoning your power, but when you’re fighting — or are angry or even just determined — you —”

“— instinctively pull a bit of my soul ‘forward’, preparing for action,” Raven finished. “You’re right. And since none of the other Titans are magical or demon hunters, they don’t pick up on it.”

“Oh, I think the glowy black hands and burning eyes are a pretty big hint,” Mercury drily retorted to smothered laughter from Moon and Mars and a snort of agreement from Jupiter. They sobered, though, when Mercury continued.

“But back to the matter at hand, up till now Nakano-san’s people hadn’t done physical examinations of any of the children involved, since they’d have had to ask for the parents’ permission and didn’t really know what to look for, anyway. But with Yoshiki’s parents dead one of the first things Child Welfare did was a thorough physical exam and they found that Yoshiki had been raped — repeatedly. Yoshiki eventually admitted that it was his father.”

She paused for a moment to allow the rest to take that in. And to give Mars a chance to calm down Raven again with a light touch on her forearm, as the Titan’s eyes had regained a faint tint of red. When Raven’s eyes had returned to their normal blue, Mercury continued, “When Nakano-san received that report, he used it to justify a complete physical of all the children involved. So far, only three have been completed. Of the three Sumiko has also been raped, Yakumo has had his forearm broken that wasn’t mentioned in his medical records, and Tatsuya has no physical signs of abuse.”

“So out of four _at best_ we have three that have been physically abused and one that has likely _only_ been emotionally abused.”

There was still a snarling undertone to Raven’s voice, but Mercury ignored it and simply nodded. “Yes. That seems to be the case, though I’m not sure how that helps us figure out what’s going on. But you can see why I didn’t want Chibi-Moon here for this.”

The rest nodded, a greenish Moon vigorously, when Venus suddenly paused. “Wait a minute, maybe it _does_ help us. Raven, didn’t you say that Rei’s last year as Akane had her training to be a demon hunter? Including recognition of the most common and famous demons?”

Mars and Raven stiffened, then turned to look at each other. “Yes ...” Mars agreed. “But I don’t remember anything that would fit this particular pattern, and Raven, considering how close it would have hit home with what you were going through at the time I would. I can try meditating to see if something more floats to the surface, but it isn’t likely. Do you know anyone that fits?”

“No, I don’t. But that doesn’t mean the answer isn’t in my library — that’s why I have it, after all. And if it isn’t there, I can ask around: Zatanna, Jason Blood, Madame Xanadu, Doctor Fate if I can get his attention.” Raven’s face twisted in disgust. “Maybe even John Constantine, if all else fails and I can find him.”

“That bad?”

“You would not _believe_ the stories about that man.” Raven looked over at the rest of the Senshi. “If that’s everything, Akane — Rei — _Mars_ , I mean, and I can get right on —”

Moon cut her off with a raised hand, and Raven swallowed when she realized that the Senshi’s leader had switched into her serious Robin mode and was focused on _her_. “Raven, I believe you had a report of your own to make. I know you didn’t want Luna and Artemis here, but they have been with us through everything. They deserve to be here. So, lay it on us.”

“Um ... okay ... sure.” Raven reluctantly rose to her feet and walked over to where Mercury had been standing, waving her to a seat and raising an eyebrow when Mercury pulled yet another crystal from her storage space and stared at it until it started to glow. Shrugging, Rave turned to face the room and felt the sudden intense worry pouring off of the two cats. She had to suppress the urge to bare her teeth — she didn’t have _fangs_ , exactly, but her incisors were sharper and more pointed than normal.... _Play with Akane’s life, will you?_ Not that the cats didn’t love their charges, from what she’d sensed, but however much she knew her mothers and grandparents loved her she was tired of being manipulated for everyone’s good and didn’t like seeing it happen to others she cared for. _Though at least Batman’s manipulations are more subtle and hands-off_.

She shook off the thought of Robin and his relationship with his long-distance mentor and refocused on the room. _Damn it, this is normally Robin’s job_. Trying to channel her absent friend and his debriefings, she collected her thoughts and said, “Okay, so you all know something of the lives you lived on Crete and how they ended, but the memory crystals you were given were recorded before you left Crete to close the gate Pandora opened under Thera. What do you know about that?”

The Senshi exchanged glances. “Not much, just what Luna and Artemis told us,” Mars finally replied when it became clear no one else would. “With Prince Alexander’s help we succeeded in closing the portal for a time with Pandora and some of the Hellenic princes that turned out to be her confederates trapped inside, but at the cost of our lives. Queen Celene sent our souls forward in time when we died to deal with Pandora when the portal reopened.”

“That’s true as far as it goes,” Raven agreed. “Yes, the nine of you closed the portal, using your own life energies to do it and were rapidly dying —”

“Wait, nine?” Mercury interrupted.

“Yes: Prince Alexander, Queen Celene, and the princesses of the houses of Hermes, Aphrodite, Selene, Ares, Zeus, Uranus, and Poseidon. Princess Psykhe of House Cronus was seriously injured in the Dance of the Bulls just before Thera erupted and so didn’t join you, and Princess Daria of House Hades stayed behind at the Queen’s request.”

Mercury had been counting along on her fingers as Raven listed them off, and frowned. “Uranus and Poseidon? So those would be Sailors Caelus and Neptune that haven’t been awakened? Why not?”

“Uranus, if you want to stick to the names of the planets. As for why not all of you were recruited when Pandora broke free of her prison, I don’t know.” Raven shrugged. “I was pushing the limits of my mandate as it was, checking out the files of those of you that are _Akane’s_ friends. I decided it was too chancy to check the files of the ones you haven’t met yet.” She felt the cats’ relief and again had to fight to keep her lips down over her incisors. _You aren’t off the hook yet...._

“Anyway, yes, Queen Celene made you an offer. But it _wasn’t_ to have your souls sent forward to be reborn now. You see, while you sealed the portal it wasn’t perfect. It couldn’t be because the gods weren’t involved in its closing this time — only mortals, in spite of your heritage that made it possible to close the portal at all. So Queen Celene offered to tie your fates together so that you all would always be reunited, and offered your memory crystals so that you could repeatedly use the divine inheritance imprinted on your souls to defend humanity from the demons and other supernatural being slipping through the cracks in the sealing.”

“So ... we’ve been doing this longer than just this lifetime?” Mercury asked, as the rest of the Senshi just looked back and forth between her and Raven. “Why aren’t we in the history books?”

“If by ‘this’ you mean the Senshi, no, that’s new. But if you mean protecting humanity from supernatural threats, you’ve been at it for over three millennia.

“As for why you’re not in the history books, you are, just not the books they use in public schools. And the writers of those books wouldn’t realize that they were dealing with an ongoing team, because other than right after your first deaths that started this and your current lives you haven’t all been the same age.” Raven shrugged again. “Demon hunting is no more safe than being a superhero, maybe less. From the lives I looked at I’d say your chances of living long enough to retire and train the next generation of your reborn team were about fifty-fifty. So some of you would die young, some wouldn’t, so the whole team was never in sync.”

“Until we all died at the same time nineteen years ago,” a troubled Venus added. “You didn’t find that suspicious?”

“Of course I did, I’ve had Robin as my team leader for five years.” Raven grinned at Venus. “It’s one of the maxims he likes to drop occasionally: ‘Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action’. The two of you would get along.”

“Oh, could you introduce us?” Venus asked, her eyes lighting up, before she shook her head. “Bad thoughts! Later, after this is over.”

“Uh ... Venus, you do know that Robin already has a girlfriend?” Raven asked. “One that can fly and fire starbolts out of her hands and eyes? One that has less control over her emotions than I do?”

“What!? I mean, yeah, sure, I just ... want to compare notes! That’s it, I’m the closest thing we have to a field commander, I could use some pointers.” By now the rest of the girls were laughing (though Raven was picking up a hint of disappointment from Jupiter), and Venus pouted. “You’re all so mean!”

Once the laughter died down, a Raven now more at ease thanks to the _much_ less guarded and suspicious emotional currents from most of the Senshi continued: “ _Anyway_ , it isn’t as much of a coincidence as you think. Malaina and Hali had died of old age the year before. Alexander was killed by a youkai some four years earlier so Celina’s suicide is no surprise.”

Raven paused for a moment, then sighed as she focused on Moon. “I know you and Alexander have the whole ‘lovers through time’ thing going, but the way the you both become suicidal when the other one dies isn’t really healthy — even if it keeps the age difference low from life to life.”

Before the suddenly pale Moon could respond, she continued, “Idola’s death when she was Akane had nothing to do with any of you, so that leaves Cytheria, Elysia and Sofia” — nodding to Venus, Jupiter and Mercury — “and you three had to make a suicide run against a demon seriously above your weight class. You managed to banish it, but ...” She shrugged again. “You were fifty-four, twenty-five, and ... thirty-seven at the time, I think.” She paused to let the girls grapple with what she’d dumped on them.

After a few minutes as their shock subsided, she started again: “So, with you all reborn at almost the same time the continuity was broken, and that turned out to be a _serious_ inconvenience when Pandora broke free when you all were only sixteen and still unaware of just who you were.”

Venus waved at the two increasingly nervous cats sitting beside each other on the floor between Mercury’s chair and the couch Raven had been sitting on with Mars (and with a clear path to the door, Raven had noted.) “So that was when Luna and Artemis decided to recruit us again and give us what help they could?”

“No, that was when Daria — the princess of House Hades, Celine’s lover, the one ordered to stay behind when you headed to Thera to close the portal? — when she _instructed_ the cats to recruit you.” Raven’s lips finally pulled back to bare her teeth in a grin that was anything but friendly. “Isn’t that right, Luna? Artemis?”

Most of the Senshi gaped at her (though Mercury didn’t seem surprised), then Venus and Moon turned to the two cats. Moon demanded, “Luna, Artemis, are ... are you _really_ working for someone else?”

“I ... I ... I ...” Luna stammered for a moment as Artemis closed his eyes for a moment in resignation.

“Yes and no,” he finally said when it became clear that Luna’s struggle for words wasn’t going to end anytime soon. “It’s closer to say that we’re _reporting_ to her, and passing along information that she thinks you need to know. But from the day we met, _you_ — our charges — are the ones we’ve _served_.”

Moon shifted her pleading gaze to the empath in the room, and Raven reluctantly nodded. As unhappy as she was with the cats’ secrecy and deception, Artemis’s sincerity was clear. Moon’s shoulders slumped in relief, but Venus was frowning. “But why all the subterfuge?” she demanded. “Why didn’t she just recruit and train us herself?”

Luna had finally recovered from her shock, and she said, “We don’t know, she’s never said. But whatever the reason she wasn’t happy about it.”

“I think I may know.” Everyone turned to look back at Raven as she walked over and knelt next to the cats. She rubbed at her face for a moment before asking, “Luna, Artemis, this modern-day Daria — what is she calling herself these days?”

Artemis glanced at Luna, then back to Raven. “Setsuna.”

“Thank you. Setsuna is the original princess of House Hades, the lover of Queen Celine, isn’t she? She’s made herself immortal somehow.”

“ ... Yes. How did you know? I thought you said you only read the Senshi’s files.”

“I did, and in every file I checked before their current lives, Setsuna was always there, always the one to find and Awaken the reincarnated princesses and Alexander, always the one pointing the princesses at the supernatural threats as they popped up ... and always the same age unless she was in disguise.” She rose to her feet and walked over to drop back down on the couch beside Mars. “Setsuna’s really messed herself up.”

The Senshi exchanged confused glances, then Mercury asked, “How did she ‘mess herself up’? And what does it have to do with her sending Luna and Artemis to recruit us?”

Raven unconsciously snuggled against Mars, then stiffened for a moment before sighing contentedly when Mars placed an arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her closer. Her reincarnated fiancée was feeling a little self-conscious as she played along, but there was some amused affection in the mix as well. _It’s a start_.

“The thing to remember,” Raven finally said, “is that Setsuna’s been doing this for over three millennia, watching you all die every twenty to eighty years or so while she goes on for century after century. By now just to stay sane she must think of you as Celina, Cytheria, Sophia and ... Elysia?” She pointed at Moon, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter in turn, raising a questioning eyebrow at the last and getting a confirming nod back. “ ... as the princesses reborn more than as Usagi, Minako, Ami and Makoto. So when she sent Luna and Artemis to recruit you a few years early, she was probably more concerned about needing to wait for you to grow up again before getting her friends back if you were killed. And don’t forget that Pandora was her sister, and if Setsuna has the same capabilities as she did back when you remember her then her memories and the emotional attachments that go with them haven’t faded _at all_ ... and she loved her sister. She probably found the thought of dealing with Pandora as that bitch deserved to be dealt with ... as _you_ had to deal with her ... to be unendurable. So instead she tossed five untrained teenagers into the deep end — with Alexander to provide a little maturity if no more experience — and hoped you could pull off a miracle. Yeah, I can believe she was ‘unhappy’, I just have to wonder why she didn’t get more experienced help.”

The Senshi all stared at her, and Raven shivered as their anger hammered into her. Her own anger rose to match them, black light began to fluctuate about her and Mars’s arm around her shoulders tightened —

“That poor woman.”

The building anger shattered under the shock of those words, and everyone turned to stare at a Moon staring at nothing as a single tear ran down her cheek. “ ‘That poor woman’?” Venus repeated, disbelieving.

“Yes.” Moon forced a smile and wiped away the tear. “Didn’t you hear what Raven said? Her emotional attachments are as strong today as they were when Thera erupted, and while she was fond of all of you, she loved me like a daughter. And then she got me back ... only she didn’t, did she? Because I don’t _remember_ , not the way she does. I can’t imagine how much that had to hurt. And then she’s had to watch me die, over and over and over again, half the time violently if Raven’s right — for _three thousand years!_ ”

Raven gaped at her, and the shame that had washed away the Senshi’s anger was an echo of her own — she had spent hours reading the files and completely missed what Moon had instantly recognized from a few comments. Mama Mara would be _so_ disappointed (though not Mamas Urd and Lind, so much). Not to mention ... _Didn’t Ami say that Usagi loves everyone, and expects everyone to return the favor? Don’t let her get to you._ Maybe _she’s right, but maybe she isn’t — life isn’t all puppies and unicorns just because she wants it to be. Though how she’s managed to spend two years as a demon hunter and stay that naïve —_ Then she remembered the briefing Mercury had just given them, the abused children. And that wouldn’t have been the only truly _ugly_ (as opposed to desperate) situation the Senshi had faced since their Awakening. No, what Moon had wasn’t naïveté, it was _faith_ — a faith in the ultimate goodness of people that was bone deep and ineradicable. A faith, now that Raven thought about it, that was very familiar indeed.

Raven shook her head, smiling wryly. “I’ll have to introduce you to my Aunt Belldandy some time. If you weren’t mortal, I’d swear the two of you were related. But Moon ... Usagi ... you can’t assume everyone is as nice as you.” She allowed the ember of still-burning anger that remembering Mercury’s report had rekindled to flare up, to slip its leash a little, and the world tinted with the red that meant her eyes were glowing crimson. “Or even as nice as me.”

The Senshi staring at her tensed again at the sight, the cats hissed, but Moon simply stared at her sadly for a long moment before finally nodding. “You’re right. Luna, Artemis, please let _Princess Daria_ know that I want to meet her.”

Then she glanced at her wristwatch and squealed happily, “Yes! We still have enough time for a run to the Arcade like we were going to do tomorrow!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the planet Uranus is the only one that has a Greek name instead of a Roman one. I have no idea why.


	11. (Briefly) Meeting Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not exactly happy with this chapter, but oh well, at least it checked off a few boxes....

Hotaru slowly eased out of her dream of the afternoon before. That day had been wonderful and wonder-filled, like she hadn’t had in ages, and now she tried desperately to hold onto the replay of the park and the new friend she’d made. But it inevitably slipped away, and Hotaru opened her eyes. Usagi would be waiting for her at lunch so for the first time in too long she was looking forward to school, but first she would have to get through her father’s morning visit. With a resigned sigh, she twisted to look over toward her desk, and froze.

The red numbers of the digital clock read 5:05. Her father hadn’t come. He hadn’t come!

She curled into a ball around her Pikachu doll and shook as her bleak resignation transformed into hope — lately her father’s morning visits had gone from occasional to daily. But maybe it was over, maybe things could go back to the way they were at first where she would have days or even a week between visits!

Finally, as the minutes ticked by and nothing changed, she uncurled and threw back her blanket to hop out of bed. It was going to be a _good_ day.

/oOo\

Tatewaki knelt outside the circle he had spent half the night shaping in sand and chalk around a smoking brazier. The last words of his low chant seemed to shiver the air, making the faint smoke rising from the brazier waver just before the coals flared red, the color shooting up through the smoke before it turned black. The smoke thickened and spread, shifted to take on the shape of the upper torso of a muscular man, the head forming the muzzle and widespread horns of a bull, the eyes glowing like two burning coals and red-tinted smoke curling up from its muzzle.

“ _You made no sacrifice this morning_.” The words seemed to fill the room, shake the floor on which Tatewaki knelt, though he knew that no one outside the room would notice a thing.

Tatewaki inclined his head and spread his arms. “No, my lord, I felt it more important to speak to you. There are those that would hinder our cause. They already interfered yesterday, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the sacrifice.”

“ _Are there? Tell me of these annoyances._ ”

“They call themselves the Sailor Senshi.” Tatewaki quickly recounted everything his previous day’s research had added to what little he’d already known.

Finally, as he wound down, the apparition nodded. “ _These ... Senshi ... are known to me. Long have they been thorns in our sides, it will be a delight for them to see the ultimate failure of their purpose before their final deaths. Continue as you are, we will see to it that the ... Senshi ... are suitably distracted._ ”

With that the coal-red eyes flared and vanished, the smoky form losing its shape and rising to spread along the ceiling. Tatewaki waited for long minutes until the last of the coals in the brazier burned to ash, then rose from his knees and opened a window and turned on a fan to air out the room. Fortunately, this window opened onto an alley so the neighbors would have their own curtains or shades closed. No one would see the smoke being pushed out into the early morning air.

And now he had to get his breakfast and on to work.

/oOo\

A huge, black silhouette of a bird rose out of the lawn of a former Buddhist temple then vanished, leaving behind two teenage girls, one in a black leotard and cloak and the other in red-trimmed Sailor Senshi costume — who promptly dropped to the grass, curled into a ball, and shook. When the redhead dropped to her knees and pulled her into her lap, stroking her friend’s raven hair, Mars forced through chattering teeth, “I a-am _n-n-never_ going to j-joke about how m-m-much you hate Senshi teleports ag-g-gain!”

“I’m sorry,” Raven apologized, “I didn’t realize it would be so bad. My teammates don’t enjoy it, but they’ve never been hit this hard.”

“I’ll b-bet you never took-k-k your team-m-m-mates on multiple h-hops. D-Do you ever us-s-s-se it as a w-w-weapon?” So cold! And the sensation of demonic power surrounding her, caressing her, trying to seep into her soul....

“Yes, but for that I hold them inside my soul-self. And you’re right, I’ve never taken my team on multiple hops like we just did, sorry ... we’ll have to take a rest after each hop on the way back.”

“Really, Raven you should have known better.” Mars uncurled enough to look up, and for an instant was blinded by the pure divine light that loomed over the person standing beside them, vaguely humanoid with wings protectively spread wide. Then she blinked and the light shape vanished to reveal a woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a freshly-stained house dress. She was holding a baby in one arm and the other extended to offer her a hand up. She accepted the help up to stand on still-shaky legs.

A blushing Raven rose to stand beside her, a hand on her elbow, and Mars glanced sideways to see her rubbing the back of her neck in a gesture that was pure Ranma, looking sheepish. “I know, I know ... maybe I’ve gotten too used to Robin calling the shots? I’ll be more careful.”

“I’m sure you will,” the woman said sternly, then smiled. “Now, do you want to introduce us?”

Raven’s blush deepened. “Uh, yeah, a’ course! Aunt Belldandy, this is Hino Rei, formerly Tendo Akane. Mars, this is Morisato Belldandy, half-sister of Mama Urd. You’ll remember her from nineteen years ago.”

Mars tried to bow and started to fall forward when her knees threatened to give way, only for Belldandy to step forward and catch one shoulder while Raven grabbed the other, then scooped her up into her arms and started walking toward the house. “Come on, let’s get inside before someone sees us, then you can get some of Auntie Bell’s tea in you to warm you up while I change into my civvies, and _then_ we can hit the books.”

/\

Rei, once again in her civilian identity, sighed as she set aside another book on the low table she was kneeling at — nothing, once again. Not that she’d expected to find anything, those of the books Raven had brought with her that were in a language Rei could read were fairly modern and somehow she had the feeling that whatever they were dealing with was _old_ , perhaps as deep in the past as her previous life as a princess. _Or at least, the past life I can remember_. (The fact that she had three thousand years’ worth of past lives was still sinking in.)

Still, even if she wasn’t likely to find anything, looking would give her something to do while Raven dove into the books Rei couldn’t read — though from her clear frustration as she switched from one book to another, with no more luck than Rei was having. (Rei had hoped to spend some time with Belldandy and maybe get some embarrassing stories of Raven’s early years growing up, but shortly after their arrival and a phone call Belldandy had apologized profusely about needing to leave them alone due to the need to rush to one of her children’s schools.)

Across the table, a capeless Raven slammed shut the book she’d been searching through and snarled. “Nothing!” She buried her face in her hands and rubbed at her eyes.

Rei scooted around the table and started massaging the Titan’s tense shoulders. “Maybe it isn’t _that_ important. After all, whoever this is — even if it’s the Kunos — they’re going after child abusers. Sure, the Godzilla we fought was out of control even after killing the abusers but still, is it such a bad thing?”

Raven sighed contentedly and leaned back then tilted her head to look up at Rei, her fiery-red hair brushing across the hands still working at her tense muscles. “As much as I’d like to believe that, your vision says differently,” she murmured. “And so do Mercury’s readings. She did detect a faint demonic influence, after all, and I know demons — they exist to ... ah, _mess_ you up. It’s their job. No, whatever’s at the heart of this is nothing good, even if Kuno is involved somehow — even if he sees himself as an honorable man, some of the crap he pulled ... and that assumes someone else isn’t playing on his gullibility.”

“Well, I know _one_ demon that exists for more than, ah, _messing_ people up.” Rei leaned down to softly kiss Raven’s forehead.

Raven smiled up at her, and Rei felt her heart skip. Yes, she was still uncertain about where they were headed, very much so, but after so long she was also ... eager? ... eager to find out. Raven reached up to cup the back of Rei’s head —

“Hello, kitling.”

At the sound of an unfamiliar voice Raven’s head shot up, knocking against Rei’s chin and cracking her teeth together. The Titan whipped around and blushed furiously at the sight of the tall, drop-dead gorgeous, deeply tanned, platinum blonde woman in black breastplate and greaves with silver patterns and a skirt of black leather strips tipped with silver leaning against the doorframe. “Mom!”

The woman smiled knowingly and pushed herself away from the doorframe to saunter in. “So, anything I need to know about?”

“Mom ...”

She laughed at the whine that had crept into her daughter’s tone. A Rei rubbing her chin joined in, then laughed even harder at the betrayed look Raven shot her.

Pointedly ignoring the humor at her expense, Raven said, “Mother, I’m sure you already know, but this is Hino Rei, Akane reincarnated. Rei, this is my Mama Urd.”

Finally stifling her laughter, Urd bowed to Rei. “I’m sure you remember me from a _very_ eventful night nineteen years ago. It is good to see that your courage now is as strong as it was then. You’ve done good work as Sailor Mars.”

Rei’s jaw dropped and she glared at the back of Raven’s head, her hands tightening on her friend’s shoulders, but the redhead just shrugged without turning around. “Don’t blame me, I didn’t tell her. I didn’t need to — remember Hugin and Munin.”

At that Rei’s anger vanished, washed away by chagrin. She muttered, “Sorry.”

Urd waved away the apology. “Come on, let’s move to the kitchen. I still know where my sister keeps the makings for tea, I think.”

A few minutes later the three were seated around a Western-style table, sipping from fresh cups. Raven waved toward her mother’s armor. “So what’s up? That’s not what you usually wear to visit Auntie Bell, I’m sure.”

Urd chuckled at the thought. “I just about need it when all the children are home, I think there were times the younger ones were ready to build a treehouse on my shoulders. But no, I was getting ready for yet another shift when Sis called to let us know you had dropped in with Rei, and I decided being a little late was worth seeing you. I would have brought Mara and Lind along, but Mara’s getting more training and Lind had yet another shift of her own.” For a moment her voice had gone grim, but a moment later her smile returned, turned impish. “So how are you two getting along? As if I need to ask.”

“As if you don’t know.” Raven glared at her mother. “Someday I’m going to figure out how you three keep such a close eye on me all the time.”

Urd’s smile turned into a grin. “Not _all_ the time. Remember the rule your grandfather laid down when he gave you the mirror? The same rule applies to us.”

“What rule are you — ?” Raven blushed so red she was almost purple.

Urd laughed as she rose to her feet, the two teenagers hastily following suit. “It’s been good to meet you again in person, Rei, but I have to get moving. I’m already late, and the show can’t start without me!”

Instead of heading toward the front entrance the two girls had used, she turned toward the backyard. It was as pleasantly green as the front, with a large tree and a swing that any child would love, a table and benches — and, to Rei’s inner eye, a large oval of pure divine power hovering almost twenty feet above the ground.

After a brief hug from her daughter and a cheery wave and farewell for Rei, Urd turned and looked up toward that invisible blaze of the divine and began to _sing_ , music like Rei had never heard but _Akane_ had one late evening a lifetime ago. As the music washed over them the portal blazed even ‘hotter’, actually visible to the naked eye. Then through an oval opening in the upper back of Urd’s armor from shoulder to shoulder, that Rei had first seen and wondered at when Urd had led her and Raven to the kitchen, two feathered wings unfurled, one white and one black, and Urd lifted off and floated up into to blinding light and was gone.

Rei stared up at the oval of divine energy once again visible only to her inner eye, then finally dropped her wide-eyed gaze to Raven. “Does that —”

“Go to the pocket dimension of Asgard where I was raised? Yes, it does.” Raven looked up at the portal for a moment. “Unfortunately I can’t take you through, it’s keyed so that I’m the only person without divine heritage that can use it.” She giggled suddenly. “Which is why it’s hanging up in the air like that, so Auntie Bell’s kids don’t somehow activate and wander through it — ‘by accident’, of course.”

“Oh, of course!” Rei laughed, and turned back toward that house. “Let’s finish our tea and get back to the books.”

The tea was cooling and the thought of the dusty-dry (and often ... unpleasant) books uninviting, but Rei was still surprised when instead of diving right back into their research, Raven simply sat and stared at the stacks for awhile, forehead creased in thought. Finally, Rei closed the book she was (uselessly) skimming. “Okay, Raven, you’re thinking too hard. It may be more your thing than when you were Ranma, but still....”

Raven hesitated, but finally sighed and nodded. “I think Mama Urd was dropping hints. And if I’m right, things are even uglier than I thought.”

Rei sat bolt upright. ‘Explain.”

“Yeah.” Raven began rubbing her neck again, and Rei’s eyes narrowed at the sight of that particular nervous tick. Then Raven rose to her feet. “Let’s go out back.”

A few minutes later the two were seated on opposite sides of the table. Doing her best to ignore the point only a few yards away radiating divine energy like warm sunlight upon her skin, Rei growled, “You’ve put it off long enough, give!”

“Sure, a’ course.” Raven laughed nervously, again rubbing her neck. “Well, ya see, what I told you guys about my life was all true, but I didn’t tell ya everything — like just what my moms do, who they are. Have to know sooner or later if we’re actually going anywhere.”

She hesitated again, groping for words and Rei got up and walked around to sit next to the Titan, an arm around her waist in a one-armed hug. “Come, spit it out and get it over with. I won’t promise not to get angry, but I can’t beat you over the head with a hammer anymore.”

“No, now ya got a sword made outta fire, an’ a bow if I fly away,” Raven snarked, but Rei could feel her relaxing even before the redhead leaned against her. “Okay, rip off the band-aid it is. I told all of you that for my mothers I had one demon, one goddess, and one that was both.”

“Yes, you did.” Rei’s eyes suddenly widened. “Urd is the one that’s both, that’s why she had one white wing and one black!”

“Right in one.” Rei could feel Raven tightening up again, and tightened her hug. Raven forced herself to relax again. “So I told you that my adopted grandfather is Kami-sama, but I didn’t tell you through who — Urd. And her mother is Hild, daimakaicho of Niflheim.”

For a moment the name didn’t mean anything, then Akane’s long ago lessons from Rei’s grandfather in, among other things, demon recognition — especially the names and titles of the more powerful ones — came to mind and she froze in shock. “You’re joking!”

“Nope, not even a little. And no, I don’t know how it happened. When I first found out I was too young to know how weird that is, and when I was old enough to know I was too caught up in my own personal drama to ask.”

She paused for a moment in thought, then shrugged and continued, “Mama Urd may be a hybrid, but up until I ran away from home five years ago she was on grandfather’s side. After that, she switched — and so did Mama Mara. Mama Mara became a goddess and took on Mama Urd’s portfolio as Norn of the Past, and Mama Urd officially became grandmother’s heir and commander of the Furies. Mama Lind was already commander of the Valkyrie.”

By now it was hard to say which girl was using the other for support, Rei limp and glassy-eyed from the implications of what she’d just heard. “Wow, a Norn, Hell’s heir and commander of its elite forces, and the commander of _Heaven’s_ elite forces for your mothers — what a family.”

“Yeah, good thing we don’t have extended family reunions, the world isn’t ready for Armageddon.”

Rei began giggling, the giggles turned to laughter, and the laughter grew until she was almost doubled over. Raven joined in, and if both girls’ laughter had a hysterical edge both ignored it. When Rei finally caught her breath, she asked, “So, hints?”

“Right.” Raven paused for a moment in thought, then said, “You understand there’s limits to how much my mothers can tell me about what they’re up to. In Mama Lind’s case there’s general prohibitions against sharing too much with mortals that don’t ‘need to know’, and she’s always been a stickler for the rules. For Mama Urd, there’s some resentment and ... well, suspicions about her loyalty to her mother — it’s only been five years since she accepted Grandmother’s offer, and for the most important position under Hild in all Niflheim. Well, important so long as _Mama Urd_ holds it — before, the Furies were commanded by the Fury with the greatest seniority; now, Niflheim’s most elite combat unit is commanded by the heir, which means anyone wanting to overthrow Grandmother has to deal with Mama Urd ... _and_ her _very_ loyal people.”

“Ouch.” Rei thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “Okay, so one mother is restricted by regulations and the other lives in a snake pit.”

“And Mama Mara is still training, and ... on probation, not really in the loop.”

“Right. So again, hints?”

“The long hours Mama Urd and Mama Lind are working — remember, she said ‘yet _another_ shift’, for both of them. Both the Valkyrie and the Furies are gearing up for a fight, and their most likely opponents are each other. And Mama Urd dropped in, making herself late no less, to tell me ... to tell _us_.”

“Oh.” Rei’s vision swam as she went lightheaded, and her hands began to shake before Raven put her own arm around Rei’s waist to keep her from falling backward off their bench. Rei whispered, “You mean we’re going to end up fighting the _Furies_?”

“No, the _Valkyrie_ would end up fighting the Furies — we just might end up fighting whoever the villain of the week turns out to be in ... the middle of a first-person shooter game. So let’s make sure it doesn’t get to that point, hmmm?” Raven reluctantly let go of Rei’s waist and slid off the bench. “Let’s pack up my library, leave a note for Auntie Bell, and head back to your place. That way we’ll be closer if anything happens.”

As they walked back into the house, Raven missed a step as a thought occurred to her. “Rei? What are we going to tell the rest of the Senshi?”

Rei was silent for a long moment before she reluctantly replied, “I don’t know.”

“Me, neither.”

They still didn’t know that evening, after a _much_ longer return trip (thanks to long breaks between each jump with Raven’s soul-self), and Raven spending more fruitless hours going through her library while Rei and her grandfather looked through _his_ library (after he offered — and after Raven and Rei got over castigating themselves for not thinking to ask for help from the man that had taught Akane about demons).

It was a very quiet night, when the pair changed into their nightshirts and laid out their futons together.

Mercury’s alert yanked them out of uneasy dreams less than two hours later.


	12. Raising the Pressure

Raven dropped down out of the night sky, Mars in her arms, to land on a store’s flat roof next to Mercury. The blue-haired Senshi looked up from the faintly glowing crystal she had been staring into and smirked at the pair, causing Mars to blush and wriggle to be put down. As Raven swung her around to stand on her own feet, before Mercury had a chance to tease them Mars said, “Flying was the fastest way to get here, and the only other practical way for Raven to carry me was with her soul-self, the same way she moves other objects. That would have been ... unpleasant.”

Mercury sobered, shuddering at the thought of how being surrounded by that demonic energy would feel. “Right, sorry.”

Raven stepped up beside the Senshi of Ice and looked down at the street. “So what’s the emergency?”

“You’ll see in a moment.” Mercury pointed down the street, then went back to staring into her crystal. Raven and Mars exchanged glances then looked down the line of stores to where the street curved. Mars frowned at a faint sound — a familiar pattern that she couldn’t quite place.... and a massive black horse with skin so tight that every rib and joint was outlined galloped into sight around the curve of the road, its hooves striking sparks from the pavement. In the light of the street lamps Mars could see the large patches in the rider’s ragged shirt and cloak, but what caught her attention was the whip that looked like it was the backbone torn out of the world’s largest snake in one hand and the head being held up high in the other instead of resting between its shoulders — a head that glowed with the phosphorescence of decaying matter when the rider passed between streetlights.

Raven started to curse in a language Mars didn’t recognize even as the mounted ... thing ... passed underneath them, and Venus and Moon appeared roof-hopping in pursuit.

Mercury growled as the ‘horse’ and rider turned at the first intersection and vanished from sight. “Too fast, my scan isn’t picking up anything helpful.” Moon and Venus paused for a moment, then resumed their pursuit when Mercury waved them on. “Raven, from your language — you were swearing, right? — I assume you recognized that ... whatever it is.”

“Yes, it’s a dullahan, a hunter of souls. It’s seeking out the soul it is sent to collect. When it finds that soul it’ll whisper the victim’s name in his — or her — ear and the soul will be ripped away and sent on to its eternal reward or punishment.”

Mars felt herself go pale. “So how do we stop it?”

“Hold on a second.” Mercury summoned her communicator and spoke into it. “Moon, Venus, Jupiter, hold up and listen to this.” She held the communicator in front of Raven.

“Okay, people,” Raven started, face grim, “we’re dealing with a dullahan. It is seeking a particular victim. All we can do is keep it away from its victim until the sun rises. The dullahan will return to hell, and won’t seek out _that_ victim again for a hundred years.”

The image of Venus’s head sprang up from the communicator. “ _Will it fight back?_ ”

“Yes, but only in an attempt to force its way past us. The bone whip is its main weapon.”

Venus nodded, frowning thoughtfully. “ _That head it’s holding, is it a trophy of some sort, or does it actually see with it?_ ”

“I don’t know if it _sees_ , exactly, but yes, the head is its ... sensory platform, as Cyborg would say. But you don’t want to hold it, or even touch it with bare skin.”

Venus’s frown morphed into a grin. “ _Okay, girls, get ready for a game of football!_ ”

/\

It had taken a few minutes for the girls to explain to Raven that no, they weren’t going to form a line and try to knock down the horse and tackle the rider, but her grin when she realized they were talking about _soccer_ sent shivers up a few spines. Now, they waited in hiding as the now-cantering rider rounded the corner of the T-intersection, turning in the direction they’d expected after Mercury had pulled up a street map she’d scanned in earlier, and they’d examined the route the dullahan had been following.

The dullahan had been carrying its head under its arm but, at the sight of the wide red-glowing trench that Mars had superheated across the road running between evacuated single-story homes, it reined its mount to a halt and shifted to raise the head as high as it could. But apparently its main sense really was sight, because after a moment it spurred its mount back into motion.

The horse quickly pushed to a gallop, gait smooth and powerful in spite of the way its skin was drawn tight across its ribs, and sparks began to spit rhythmically from its nostrils. As it approached the trench it leaped, soaring over the bubbling-red asphalt ... and Venus’s gold-glowing chain flashed out from where she’d been hiding around the corner of a home to wrap around its front legs and yanked them down into the trench. The horse flipped over, spilling its rider.

The dullahan had kicked free of its stirrups and pushed off to avoid having the horse land on it, and now it stopped its own roll and pushed to its knees to hold its head high, just as Mars rushed from her own corner on the opposite side of the street, the same fire-blade she’d used on the Godzilla held high. She swung down to slash through the upraised arm, and as the severed limb dropped she kicked the head out of its loosened grip then jumped back. The head flew across the street, and a Jupiter that had dropped from the roof of the home Venus had hidden behind caught it on her chest, then when it dropped kicked it farther up the block to Mercury.

The dullahan clambered to its feet and snapped out its vertebrae whip, but it staggered as the head spun through the air and its strike went wide. Then a fresh golden chain flashed out to wrap around its torso and _yanked_ , and it flew across the street to smash into and through a home’s front door.

The gaunt horse had staggered to its feet and now began to charge toward Venus only to be knocked to the side by a small car blackly glowing with Raven’s soul-energy.

Moon dashed out of her own hiding place across the street from Mercury and leaped high to catch the head her teammate kicked toward her. She instantly dropped it before its corrosive skin could begin to eat through her gloves, and laughed as she kicked it back toward a Jupiter running toward her and Mercury. “I can do this all night!”

/\

The first rays of the rising sun bathed the dullahan, and it faded away as all the Senshi fell panting to their knees then flopped onto their backs on the lawn of the neighborhood park their hours-long running battle had ended in. They had learned the hard way that if the dullahan’s head got too far away from its torso it would vanish and reappear between its shoulders. They’d also learned that Moon couldn’t banish just the head or torso and, as with Mercury’s attempts to scan it, when head and torso were together it moved too fast for her to banish it then.

Also, that it was _really_ skilled with the _really_ sharp bone whip it wielded when it wasn’t disoriented by having its head kicked around, and as sharp as that whip (Mars was still dabbing at a bleeding slice across the side of her neck from a strike that had stopped Raven’s heart for a moment) and the horse almost its equal — _three times_ they had managed to separate torso from head only for the dullahan or the horse to manage to get them back together, before their fourth game of football had ended up among the trees of the park’s small grove.

A sweat-soaked Raven floated down from where she had been acting as spotter and back-up (it turned out her soul-energy worked about as well on the whip as on Jack-o’-the-Lantern’s hellfire-in-a-turnip, but at least that was enough to throw off its aim) and sprawled on the grass between a still-gasping Mars and Moon, relaxing as she felt the girls relax from their intense battlefield focus. They were even a little giddy, she presumed from the lack of fatalities.

Raven gently grasped Mars's hand, then turned her head to glare at Moon. “If I ever hear you say something like ‘I can do this all night’ again, I swear I will _smack_ you. Do _not_ tempt fate like that!”

The other girls giggled tiredly, then Mercury pushed herself up to sit cross-legged. “I’d better call this in, give Nakano-san a heads-up in advance of the next briefing.” She pulled a disposable cell-phone out of ‘stuff space’ and pressed its single button. “Mercury here, code six seven three nine.” ... “Nakano-san?” ... “Yes, I suppose with everything that’s happening having the reports go straight to you makes sense, though I’m not sure tonight had anything to do with the children. Raven identified tonight’s demon as a dullahan and though it took all night to stop it, it was only a threat to a single person we kept it away from.” ... “Yes, a _very_ long night.” ... “What!? Was anyone killed?” ... “Well, that’s something. But even hospitalizing people is higher than the first events. If it’s a cycle, it might be a spiral upward rather than a circle.” ... “Of course, give me the GPS coordinates and I’ll be there as quickly as I can.” She pulled another device out of her ‘stuff space’ and after a moment said, “Got them, I’ll be there in ... half an hour, I think.”

She closed the phone and returning it to her ‘stuff space’ with a weary sigh, and looked around at the rest now also sitting up and looking at her. “Another toy came to life and attacked the parents. It wasn’t powerful enough to kill them, but they’re in the hospital. I’m going to head over to the attack site to perform some scans.”

“Wait!” At the shout the rest turned to Mars, to find her looking at Raven.

The Titan gazed back for a moment, fighting not to wince at Mars’ torn loyalties, then sighed as she reached up to rub the back of her neck under her fiery hair and forced a smile. “You’re right, they need to know.” Her smile turned real at Mars’ instant relief, and she turned to the rest of the Senshi. “When Mars and I were picking up my library from Aunt Belldandy’s place, Mama Urd dropped in to see us....”

She quickly laid out the increased training of the Furies and Valkyrie (and just what they were — to no one’s surprise Mercury already knew of them, though thankfully she didn’t know the names of their commanders and Raven and Mars were happy to leave it that way), and what she and Mars thought it meant for the Senshi.

When she was done, Venus slowly said, “So ... last night was a distraction.”

“Yes,” Raven agreed, “that’s what I think, too.”

“A distraction?” A confused Moon looked back and forth between Venus and Raven. “But Raven, you said that the dullahan would kill someone if we didn’t stop it!”

Raven shrugged. “Yes, it was the worst kind of distraction, one that’s a real threat if you ignore it.” She reached down and twisted one of the large garnets that made up her belt. It came away from its gold setting, and she grinned at the confused Senshi. “If our enemies are upping their game, we need to as well.”

She pressed one of the buttons beneath the tiny viewscreen on the garnet’s back, after a few moments it lit up to show Robin’s domino-masked face. “Raven, it’s good to hear from you, we’ve been wondering how you’ve been doing.”

Raven winced at what felt to her like an unspoken reprimand, and looked around at the others. From the confusion she was picking up, only Mars and Mercury’s English was good enough to really understand him. Sticking to Japanese, she said, “I’m sorry about not getting back to you all, I’ve been ... distracted. But I’m afraid this isn’t me remembering the friends I left behind, we have a situation here.”

She laid out what had been happening, and Robin nodded. Switching to Japanese, he said, “I’ll call everyone in and get the T-jet prepped, we’ll be there as fast as we can.”

“And by the time you get here I should be able to tell you where to land.”

“Good, see you in a few hours.”

Robin’s image vanished, and Raven took a moment to reattach her communicator to her belt before looking up at the stunned Senshi. She shrugged. “If our enemies are bringing in more people, we need to as well.”

Moon brightened. “She’s right! I’ll call Ma — uh, Tuxedo Kamen and see if he can come home.”

Jupiter laughed. “Anything to get your cuddle-buddy back, right?” The other girls’ laughter joined Jupiter’s as Moon pouted.

As the laughter died down, Venus said, “Moon’s love life aside, that’s probably a good idea. If he finds later that we called in the Titans and didn’t call him, he will _not_ be happy.” She pushed herself to her feet with a groan. “Other than Mercury, let’s get to bed. Moon, don’t forget that you and Raven have your meeting with Princess Daria this afternoon.”

Raven winced. Between that meeting and needing to get the Titans settled, it was going to be a _long_ day. Especially since ... “Mercury, I’ll be joining you. Maybe I can pick up or notice something your own scans miss. And I can let Nakano-san know the Titans are on their way.” _And at this point it’s a_ really bad _idea for any of us to go anywhere alone, at least not in costume_. From Venus’s relief, she’d just had the same thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, a little short for one week, much less the two weeks since my last chapter for any of my stories. This week I started the extra training at work that's going to eat up a lot of my time, though not as badly as I thought. Still, I'm likely to lose one week in three for the next few months, we'll have to see how it goes. And yeah, the sides are getting larger, though I'm going to try and keep the focus mostly on Raven and Rei. If I don't, this story could become as much of a sprawl as one of Turtledove's alternate history books.


	13. Meeting Again for the First Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And life continues to be 'interesting' at work, so more of my writing than usual is happening on the weekends. But at least it's happening, if slowly....

A _very_ disgruntled Chibi-Usa stalked through the school gates. The Senshi were having _all_ _sorts_ of fun, and she was missing it because all the action was after her bedtime! She had even tried to stay awake the previous night, so she could sneak out and follow her mother-to-be, but the current baddie (whoever it was) must have been insanely late because she’d fallen asleep and the first she’d known anything was happening was when Baka-Mama joined the family for breakfast through the front door instead of from her bedroom.

(And wasn’t _that_ giving the gossip-mongers plenty of fuel, especially since they knew Mamo-chan was attending university in America.)

 _I didn’t come back to take classes I’ve already done — boring!_ she silently fumed, before taking a deep breath and blowing out her frustration. _I’ll just have to do a better job tonight. Meanwhile_ ... She looked around, and frowned when she couldn’t locate a newly-familiar dark-haired girl with a page-girl haircut anywhere on the school grounds. She was running late and had expected Hotaru to beat her there —

Hearing someone behind her, she turned to find her new friend just coming through the gates, and stiffened. Something was off.

There was nothing obvious — no bruises, no bandages, no limp, she wasn’t even moving all that slowly. But thanks to the people Chibi-Usa had been exposed to because of her parents — both the villains and suck-ups — Alexander and Celina had both made sure that their precocious daughter could read people. And for Hotaru, something was definitely wrong. Something about her eyes ...

She started toward her friend, and Hotaru finally noticed her and stiffened ... just as the bell rang for class. At the sound Hotaru broke into a jog. As she passed Chibi-Usa she called out, “I’ll see you at lunch!”

Chibi-Usa stared at her friend’s retreating back. Had that been relief that had flashed across Hotaru’s face at the sound of the bell? Something was _definitely_ wrong.

/oOo\

Kodachi finished cleaning up the last of the breakfast dishes, and glanced at the clock. It had taken her longer than usual, by now her little Hotaru would be starting her first class.

_Ho-chan...._

Her little girl was the reason clean-up had taken so long — Tatewaki had resumed the ... ritual ... that morning and the memory of Hotaru’s slumped shoulders and haunted eyes when she had come to breakfast had haunted her mother, distracting her from her chores.

But now those chores were done, and Kodachi slumped over the table with her head in her hands and tried to think of another task to distract her. The problem was that there _were_ no more chores — after her brother had struck her she had gone into a cleaning frenzy, and now _everything_ was done, including some minor repairs that she had been putting off for months.

She tried to summon up memories of her Ranma-sama, to fuel the hatred that carried her for over a decade — but the images were faded ... hazy ... and that image of masculine perfection in form and deed kept looking at her in horror. _What would_ my Ranma-sama _think of what I have done? What_ will _he think when we meet again?_

The thought struck her like a thunderbolt. She knew that man that had come to the aid of a complete stranger, that would have loved and cared for her for all of their glorious life together if not for the murderous Amazons and that harridan Akane — yes, she knew what he would say of what she’d done to revenge his death, and the thought of those words made her cringe.

 _No, I will_ not _meet my Ranma-sama with those words upon his lips. What point is my vengeance if it destroys all chance of future happiness? It is time to look to myself and my daughter._

Straightening, she began considering her options. Simple murder was out: her brother had kept up his chosen Art while she had not, and it would take too long for her to reacquire her expertise and be difficult to hide — and impossible to hide who was responsible for his death from the police. Poison would be much simpler, but she lacked access to the ingredients to make it undetectable — so again, impossible to hide from the police. And she couldn’t simply go to the police and accuse her brother of assaulting their daughter, he could easily have collected evidence of her own prior knowledge ... upon reflection, she had not been as careful as she should have been. And besides, any serious investigation would reveal her and Tatewaki’s false identities for what they were, and their true relationship. She could not inflict that stigma on Hotaru.

_That leaves running, as distasteful as that may be. I still have my passport under my true name, and can arrange for Hotaru to come along easily enough. All it will take is money. Between my personal savings and Tatewaki’s next paycheck we will have enough to travel to the United States and disappear. That means I will have to wait until the paycheck is deposited and he takes out his own allowance._

_Be strong for just a little longer, little Ho-chan, Mother will save you._

/oOo\

Raven watched the T-jet lower the last few feet to settle gently on one of the helicopter pads at the airport nearest to the Cherry Hill shrine, the thrust of its jets blowing water in all directions. That soft landing was definitely Robin’s handiwork, Cyborg was always a little more ... eager to get where he was going. And the less said about _Beast Boy’s_ piloting the better.

Then Raven noticed the pilot’s pink hair through the cockpit window and blushed. _Oh, right, Jinx — I forgot my replacement, silly me._

Standing beside her, Mercury yawned as she wiped rain out of her eyes. “Finally,” she muttered, glancing enviously at the redhead standing wrapped in her cape with her hood up against the steady drizzle. “Now we can get this over with and get to bed.”

“You didn’t have to get out of bed and come along.”

“Yes, I did,” the blue-haired Senshi disagreed. “Better to give them a communicator and get their signatures registered as quickly as possible so I can get _back_ to bed.” Smirking, she added, “Even if I don’t have the bedwarmer waiting for me that you do.”

Raven blushed — Ami had taken it in stride when she’d walked into Rei’s bedroom intent on waking up Raven in time for the Titans’ arrival to find her and Rei wrapped around each other under the blankets, but Raven just knew she and Rei were going to be in for some good-natured ribbing. The fact that she and Rei had been wearing their night-shirts wasn’t going to help anywhere near as much as it should — quite the reverse, actually.

Then the door in the side of the small jet lowered, and Raven was swept off her feet and whirled around by a gold-and-purple blur, water from her cape spattering everyone around them. “Friend Raven! It is so wonderful to see you again, we have missed you!”

Starfire, it’s only been a few days, put me down!” a laughing Raven ordered in the English Starfire had spoken, then when her friend ignored her used her own flight to _up_ right out of the embrace. She spun a few times then landed next to Mercury, pulling her hood back up over her head. “Everyone, this is Sailor Mercury. Unlike others of the girls her English is excellent, so she’ll be the go-between for the Senshi. Mercury, these are Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, Terra and Jinx. Robin knows Japanese, I don’t think any of the rest do.”

Jinx spoke up: “I know enough to ask for directions.”

Mercury bowed politely and said in her heavily-accented English, “Thank you for coming to our aid.”

Robin smoothly returned the bow, Starfire and Jinx hastily following his lead while the others exchanged uncomfortable glances. Robin replied, “If Raven calls, the Titans answer. So how are we going to do this?”

Raven waved forward a man standing in what building’s shadow the overcast sky allowed, his trenchcoat’s collar turned up against the wet. (When Raven had first met him, she’d instantly thought of a Japanese version of John Constantine — he might be clean-shaven but he certainly shared the Brit’s world-weary cynical do-goodism, along with Constantine’s ability to fade into a crowd.) “Titans, this is Nakano-san. He’s in charge of the Tokyo division of the agency that handles supernatural issues. He’ll be providing you with a place to stay, and along with Mercury what little intelligence we have on the enemy and the division of labor for dealing with them.”

Nakano-san bowed, and in fluent English said, “Let me add my thanks to Mercury’s for your support.”

Before the Titans could try to respond, Raven spoke up again: “And now that you’ve been introduced, I have to go. I have another meeting before I can get back to bed.”

Robin’s gaze sharpened. “Do you need back-up?”

“No, this is Senshi business, I’m just going along as a lie detector. It doesn’t have anything to do with our enemy — I think.”

She quickly made her goodbyes (finally getting a back-cracking hug from Cyborg and a _much_ gentler one from Terra), then lifted off from the tarmac and flew away over the city toward where she’d been told to meet Moon and the ( _shudder_ ) cats.

/oOo\

Setsuna paced her office as she waited, the emerald-haired woman’s anxiety over the coming meeting making it impossible for her to maintain her usual calm mask. Not to mention how it had pushed her to dress up in her finest clothing, as if meeting royalty rather than a child she had watched grow over and over.

The last several days had been frustrating. The records of the Kuno siblings had been easy enough to find (along with Ranma, corroborating at least some of Raven’s story), but came to an abrupt end shortly after their father’s bankruptcy and suicide; and while the size of the haystack she was searching had shrunk with the latest attacks, the needle was still proving elusive and time was running out.

But that wasn’t what lay behind her nerves — no, _that_ could be laid to the bombshell that Luna and Artemis had dropped on her, and the discussion that led up to it. A discussion that had haunted her thoughts ever since — especially due to her initial reaction to it.

Then her wards rang like a bell to her ‘inner ear’ as they acknowledged the power demanding passage, a flash lit up the room from behind her, and she took a deep breath and turned to face her guests.

A Sailor Moon dripping on the luxurious carpet was petting Luna as she looked around the office in delighted interest, but an equally wet Raven was clutching Artemis to her in a way that could _not_ be comfortable for the cat, her face turning greenish. “Do you have a bathroom?” she demanded with a strangled voice. Setsuna pointed to a closed door, and the redhead dropped Artemis and bolted for it.

A moment later Moon winced in sympathy at the sound of her friend throwing up. “Something about our Senshi teleport doesn’t agree with her,” she offered apologetically, “and this last trip seems to have been the worst yet.”

“It’s her demonic heritage,” Setsuna replied. “Since you were going to be fighting demons I included a temporary disabling effect for any you might carry with you, made worse by coming through my wards. Now that she’s here, I can key in an exception for her. The broach?”

Moon handed over a worn silver broach in the shape of the Chinese symbols for ‘travel’, and Setsuna put it in one of her desk’s drawers.

The sound of water running in the bathroom’s sink cut off, and Raven came out wiping her lips with a towel. “I may take you up on that exception.”

Setsuna took a deep breath and bowed deeply to Moon. “My princess, I must apologize for how I have treated you and the others. Raven was right, I have become ... not jaded, but uncaring of those around me. My initial reaction to your familiars’ report was to consider killing you all once the present crisis was over and waiting for your next reincarnations. Five hundred — even two hundred years ago I would have not been so uncaring.”

Moon blanched, stepping back. She whispered, “You ... you care so little for us now?”

“No! No, I still care for you ... all of you. You’re the center of my life, the only constant over the centuries. But it was the _princesses_ I cared for — Celina, not Usagi; Idola, not Rei or Akane. And I didn’t care about your families at all, the pain they would have suffered.” She bowed again, deeper than before. “I am truly sorry.”

Moon looked over at Raven and smiled with relief at the Titan’s nod, then stepped forward and threw her arms around Setsuna. “You’re forgiven, but we’re going to fix this. We can’t risk having it happen again.”

A Setsuna too choked up to speak simply nodded as she returned the hug, unmindful of Moon’s rain-damp staining her clothes.

The two stood there for several long uninterrupted minutes, before Setsuna finally, reluctantly released her Princess. Turning her back to her guests, she wiped her eyes with tissue from the box on her desk then schooled her expression and turned back around. “We can discuss what to do with me later, right now we have more immediate concerns.” She waved to a circle of comfortably padded leather-covered chairs off to one side. “I have information about our current enemy — this isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with it. And that first time did not end well at all.”

Moon sat as Raven took off her cloak and sat in the chair next to her. The two cats jumped up into their laps as Setsuna sat in the chair across from them. “Before I get started, is there anything beyond what Luna and Artemis told me?” She looked down at the cats. “You _have_ told me everything?”

“Everything that had to do with our enemy,” Artemis assured her as Moon and Raven exchanged glances.

“There is one thing you might not have heard yet,” Raven admitted, “I don’t think the cats have heard about it yet — I only told the Senshi this morning.” She quickly spoke of the increased readiness of the Furies and Valkyrie, and her mother going out of her way to make sure her daughter knew about it.

When she finished, a now-pale Setsuna stared at her for a moment before leaning back and rubbing at her temples. “This is bad — _really_ bad, even worse than last time.”

“Last time?” Raven asked, leaning forward.

“Yes, last time.” Setsuna’s hands moved aimlessly, as if searching for something to do. Artemis jumped from Raven’s lap to hers and curled up, and she began gently stroking his snow-white fur, smiling down at him when he began to purr.

Collecting her thoughts, she said, “The last time something like this happened was several thousand years ago, in the British Isles between Julius Caesar’s brief foray and the emperor Claudius’s more permanent conquest. As now, children’s dolls and carved figures began coming to life and attacking the parents. Unlike this time, though, we were unable to intervene — they were too widespread and random.

“Until they weren’t. I eventually deduced that they were occurring within a circular area, and using the parents’ pain, fear and deaths to raise the power for a summoning. We stationed ourselves at about the center of the attacks, close enough that we were able to detect the final summoning and prevent it—but that was one of the few times that I’ve been happy that my princesses forget from one life to the next.

“We ... I ... had to kill the young girl that was being used as a conduit. Whatever was coming through was too powerful for us to handle, we had to stop it before it reached us.”

Raven and Moon stiffened at that, then Moon said sternly, “There will be none of that this time — if the summons is successful, then it’s successful. If we have to call on the entire Justice League for help, then that’s what we do.”

Setsuna thought of the League joining the fight, then the Furies coming to the support of whatever demon lord was summoned, then the _Valkyrie_ piling in, all in the middle of Tokyo, and felt the world go hazy. From the way Raven’s pale complexion had bleached pure white, the Titan had the same thoughts — and the half-demon girl with demonic and divine mothers would have an even better idea of the devastation that would cause than Setsuna did.

Then Raven visibly gathered her wits and forced herself to relax. “We’ll just have to make sure it doesn’t come to that, which means we’ll need all the help we can get. Meioh-san, the cats said that you know who the reincarnations of Malaina and Hali are and haven’t awakened them because of possible complications, but I’m sure you have everything set up for them to become Senshi if the situation gets bad enough. Is it bad enough?”

“Oh, yes, I’ll take care of it personally tomorrow. They won’t have any experience, of course, but the other princesses can tell you that basic skills are a part of the package — and along with them we’ll gain at least one more ally as well.” Setsuna manage to keep her face straight in spite of the giggling fit threatening to burst out, but from the way Raven’s eyes narrowed she might as well have not bothered.


	14. Recruiting Drive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, _way_ too long since my last chapter! A few more months, and the fifty-hour weeks can go away and things get back to normal. But it will be a little while before I get back to this story — it's been almost a year since I limited myself to two stories, and I've decided to put this story on temporary hold until I post a new chapter for each of my stories on hiatus. I'll still be posting chapters for my Hobbit story, though.

Urd narrowed her eyes as she dove toward her foe, her body straight as an arrow and her arms in tight with the swords in her hands flat against her legs, her platinum-blond wings folded tight against her back to reduce wind resistance and make herself less of a target. Pure-black energy flashed from the bladed staff held by the brown-haired and -winged woman she was stooping toward, but Urd had lifted one wing just enough and was already spinning out of the beam’s destructive path ... then again to avoid a second beam, then a third — Janet wasn’t so much trying to hit her commander (though she’d take merciless advantage of her luck if she managed it) as shift the path of Urd’s dive away from her target, to be targeted in turn as Urd flashed past her.

But _this_ time she failed, and Urd whooped as she adjusted at the last split-second, twisted forward, and the heels of her bodysuit slammed into Janet’s breasts. As a deceased spirit made corporeal Janet lacked the mortal frailty that would have made such a blow so devastating, but even with her wings spread wide for stability she was still knocked backwards with her staff swinging wide.

Urd was already spinning again, using what was left of her momentum to follow her second-in-command, her wings whipping down Janet’s face as she did. She spread her wings to kill her spin, wrapped her legs around Janet’s waist as her platinum-blond hair blew about her face, obscuring her vision for a moment. Then the soft breeze blew her hair away from her eyes to reveal her swords crossed under Janet’s chin — and the swirling black-striped form of her Angel looming over her shoulder, the glowing daggers in her hands hovering just over Janet’s eyes.

(Even through the exultation of her victory, Urd mourned at the sight of World of Elegance — the swirling black striping along her skin had expanded even more, washing away white, and the best Urd had been able to do was slow its growth. But when she’d again begged her Angel to allow herself to be transferred to Mara, World of Elegance had once again refused.)

Janet was almost cross-eyed, staring at the daggers World of Elegance wielded. She hastily said, “I yield!” World of Elegance pulled back, and the Fury sighed with relief.

World of Elegance spun happily, arms outstretched and her daggers leaving trails of light. She caroled a wordless victory march, then when Janet started grumbling she paused to stick her tongue out at her defeated foe. Grinning at the bark of laughter she’d startled out of the Fury, the angel looked down at her mistress, her grin turning into a gentle smile.

Urd sighed, her mourning easing as her angel’s comforting understanding and acceptance washed over her, and tilted her head up as World of Elegance bent down to give her an upside-down kiss on the red downward-pointing triangle between Urd’s eyes.

Then she was gone, withdrawn back inside her mistress, and Janet sighed for a moment before grinning. “Do you think you can unwrap yourself? I’m not Mara.”

“Right!”

Urd hastily unlocked her legs from behind Janet’s back, and the two drifted downward (shifting out of the way of several lances of black light from other sparring pairs as they did so — situational awareness was part of the training) to settle on the training cavern’s grassy floor and lay aside their weapons.

Once the two settled, wings withdrawn and lying on their backs on the grass (keeping a careful eye on the aerial dance of those still sparring), Urd decided to chance leaving lookout duty to Janet to focus on her Second. “Jan, what’s bothering you?”

Janet glanced at her for a moment before refocusing on the pairs dogfighting above, and especially the occasional dark beam that splashed against the grass around them. “What makes you think something’s bothering me?”

“I’ve beaten you twice today, I’m normally lucky to manage that twice a week. What do you think?”

Janet grimaced, but couldn’t deny her commander’s point — Urd had come a long way in five years, but Janet had been a Fury for a century. And if there was anyone driven to excel in their chosen craft, it was the Furies.

A century ago Janet’s thirst for vengeance had burned hot, unslaked by the bloody revenge she had taken on the fop that had seduced and then abandoned her ... and the friends that had cheered him on ... and on the family that had thrown her out onto the streets of Hong Kong when her pregnancy had revealed her sin.... She’d had quite a rap sheet when she’d simultaneously committed suicide and killed the unborn son she’d hated as much as she’d hated his father — and handed her soul to Hild.

But over the decades Janet’s bloodlust had cooled even as her skills and leadership qualities as a Fury had grown, and now Urd suspected the only thing holding her back from moving on to her next life was concern for a too-idealistic (if not young) fool on fire with her own thirst for bloody justice (if not vengeance — she was at least enough Belldandy’s sister for that) that had displaced Janet as commander of the Furies without _really_ knowing what she was getting into.

“Okay, you have a —” Janet broke off, then urgently whispered, “Shield!”

In a heartbeat Urd’s translucent white dome sprang up around them, just as a black beam splashed against it.

“Rayya,” Janet murmured. “She’s been maneuvering to get the shot in and make it look like an accident since we landed.”

“Right,” Urd murmured back, then dropped her shield and raised her voice: “Rayya, you know better than that, KP duty!” She grinned at the curse that echoed down to the pair, followed by the laughter of the other sparring pairs. Being embodied souls Furies couldn’t actually eat, but doing ‘kitchen patrol’ for those demons that did — especially the ones that had assumed less human forms over time — could be singularly unpleasant. (Though every decade or so a demon could be expected to get out of line, so her fellow Furies guarding her could look forward to at least the possibility of entertainment.)

Urd and Janet exchanged grins, before Urd returned to her earlier question. “So, what’s bothering you?”

Jan sighed as she looked up for a moment at the soft light radiating from the cavern’s high ceiling. “I’m just not looking forward to fighting the Valkyrie. Neither are a lot of the others — it’s only been a year since we fought alongside them against Trigon’s demons, after all. Memories linger.”

“Ah, so that’s it.” Urd hesitated for a moment, then mentally shrugged. “Pass the word to the other worriers that you can trust to keep their mouths shut, we’re almost certainly not going to be fighting the Valkyrie.”

“What?” Janet managed to keep her voice down. She glanced at Urd for a moment before again focusing on the Furies darting about above them — just because Rayya had been caught didn’t mean someone else wouldn’t push her luck, and that didn’t take into account the kind of accident Rayya had been trying to fake. “What makes you say that?”

Now Urd shrugged openly, not that Janet saw it. “You may have been a Fury a lot longer than I have, but I’ve known my mother longer than you ... a _lot_ longer. She’s up to something ... I don’t know what but she is, and I doubt it’s as simple as a brawl with Lind’s people over Tokyo. At least, we’ll probably be fighting the Justice League — _all_ of the Justice League, or at least all its heavy hitters — as a lesson to the demons so eager to set up their own private little hells on Earth of the power of the mortals whose souls they treat like cattle.”

Janet didn’t take her eyes off those above them, but a tension Urd hadn’t really noticed before slipped away. “Do you really think so?”

“Yes. Oh, that’ll hardly be all of it — it’s Mother, after all, and I wish to ... to Whoever that Raven wasn’t caught up in this mess — but that much I’m sure of.”

“Good. And now it’s time for your favorite part of the day.”

Urd groaned, ignored Janet’s giggles as she grabbed her swords, rose to her feet and manifested her wings, then lifted into the air and up through the sparring pairs, almost unconsciously dodging a stray shot as she did so. Those sparring slowed and maneuvered for position as she passed, they knew what was coming.

Once above everyone else, she called out, “All right, everyone, General Melee!”

/oOo\

From the shadows of the hilltop trees, Setsuna watched as a girl with short platinum-blond hair spun around in place, arms and occasionally a leg a whirlwind of punches, blocks, counter-punches and kicks — all to the frantic beat of her sea-green-shade-haired sister-in-all-but-blood’s soaring violin, before an appreciative audience of fellow visitors to the park.

It had been years since the ancient Immortal had personally visited her last two wayward princesses — not since a certain Amazon Elder had joined their household, in fact — and she was impressed. Impressed by both girls’ skill, but more pertinently Haruka’s. The reincarnated Malaina, princess of House Ouranos, wasn’t even up to Robin’s level and Ranma would have considered her a dilettante (if not _Raven_ ), but so long as he didn’t resort to his weapons the Boy Wonder would have at least had to break a sweat taking her down.

_And she’s going to need every bit of skill she has_. Setsuna again tried to think of a way to recruit _just_ Haruka, but couldn’t come up with anything — whether the two girls were more than sister-friends as her hired observers suspected, they were _definitely_ inseparable. Besides, by now the rest of the princesses knew that she knew where _both_ un-Awakened princesses were, and if she didn’t recruit both there would be questions — and Malaina ... _Haruka! Remember, she has her own life now, outside of your memories_ ... Haruka would be less than happy with the answers. And Setsuna refused to start lying to her princesses now.

_Ah, well, at least we’ll get Ku Lon along with the princesses, she’ll be a big help_. Speaking of that shrunken prune of a woman, where had she vanished to? She had been balanced on her staff only a few meters from her student —

“Greetings, Mother.”

It took all of Setsuna’s self-control not to leap for the sky, rather than calmly turn around to the source of the ancient voice behind her. As expected, she found Ku Lon there, balancing on her staff. Setsuna congratulated herself for having the foresight to wear a replica of the battle dress and robe she’d worn when she and her princesses had visited Joketsuzoku centuries before. Ku Lon hadn’t been born yet and the locus had still been in Tibet so neither Setsuna nor the princesses had looked Japanese, but Setsuna had hoped that the Elder had read about her previous visit — considering the mess it had been it had to have made an impression and they’d parted on good terms.

“Greetings, Elder,” she replied, giving the bow of one equal to another.

Ku Lon dipped her head in acknowledgment. “It is an honor to meet the Guardian, though I hope that the situation is less ... fraught ... than the last time you sought out the Amazons?”

“ ‘Fraught’,” Setsuna repeated. “Yes, I’d say the situation is fraught — deadly, even. More deadly that our mission to your village.”

Ku Lon paled. “That catastrophe killed an Elder and a double handful of our best warriors, it took a generation to recover!”

“It also killed two of my princesses — one of whom is down there playing the violin.”

Ku Lon’s face froze. She stared at Setsuna for a long moment, then asked in a voice whose quiet calm was at odd with the tension suddenly filling the air, “Why are you here, Mother?”

“Why you think. And it isn’t just one of your charges, it’s both — the other was also there that day, she simply wasn’t buried by your people.” Setsuna sighed, rubbing at her face. “I’d hoped to leave them alone this lifetime, but the situation is spiraling out of control. However, it isn’t _quite_ as bad as it sounds, while the threat is greater so are our allies — the Teen Titans arrived yesterday, and if the worst happens the Justice League is a call away. I wouldn’t be seeking to Awaken Malaina and Hali at all, as untrained as they are, if it wasn’t that two artifacts in my possession are soul-bound to them. Hopefully they won’t be needed, but ...” She shrugged.

“But hope is not something you want to depend on, on a battlefield. If you Awaken them, how much of Haruka and Michiru will be left?”

“All of them; they only remember bits and pieces of one past life, and I’m told it’s like dreaming of someone else’s life.”

“You ‘are told’.” Ku Lon waited for a moment, but when Setsuna didn’t respond she shrugged away the irrelevancy. “Why didn’t you recruit them earlier, when you could have had the time to train them properly?”

“Because of you, actually.” Ku Lon’s gaze sharpened, and it was Setsuna’s turn to shrug. “I didn’t know what your interest in the Ten’oh household was, and didn’t want to risk finding myself at odds with a village of some of the best warriors in the world — that could seriously hamper my mission.”

Ku Lon sagged on her perch, suddenly looking every year of her centuries-long life. “There is no need for you to worry, Mother, I am no longer in contact with Joketsuzoku. By now I have no doubt been cast out of the tribe, but I have no intention of ever learning if that is true. Haruka is my great-great-granddaughter, and my place is here to see to it that she knows something of where she comes from as she seeks her own future.” Taking a deep breath, she straightened, once more steel-cored. “You know I will be joining you.”

“I expected no less. Your assistance will be invaluable.” Setsuna bowed again to the Elder. _This is too serious_. She briefly considered mentioning Raven, but decided to keep that card close to her chest — she wanted to see Haruka and Michiru’s faces when they met their teammates, not to say Raven and Rei’s! Still ... “So, shall we collect your wards? I want to see their faces when they first manifest their ... uniforms.”

“ ‘Uniforms’?” Ku Lon repeated suspiciously.

“Yes, uniforms,” Setsuna repeated, smiling impishly. “Have you ever seen any news video of the Sailor Senshi?”

Ku Lon’s eyes widened, then she began to _giggle_ , her amusement swelling until she was laughing so hard she fell off her staff.


	15. Loose Threads

Tatewaki again knelt outside the sand and chalk circle surrounding the brazier, watching as the rising smoke shaped itself into the bull-headed form of his patron. Again, the eyes above the muzzle glowed with the light of burning embers and its deep voice seemed to shake the floor, even harsher than before. “ _There was no sacrifice!_ ”

Tatewaki bowed more deeply than he ever had before, almost abasing himself. “No, I felt you needed to know, the Senshi have sought allies! They brought over a team of gaijin, the Teen Titans, to do their bidding. While the Senshi deal with the distractions you have sent, the Teen Titans interfered with the previous night’s sacrifice!”

The weight of his patron’s regard doubled, and redoubled, and Tatewaki kept his eyes fixed on the floor. “ _So, the Senshi are involving more of this world’s guardians. Have you prepared your sister to play her part?_ ”

“Yes. She has been checking out airline websites, and retrieved the papers she and Hotaru need for international travel. She believes I am unaware of her preparations, and only awaits the deposit of my next paycheck to bolt.”

“ _Make the wealth she needs available now, this morning. She will try to run this very day, and you will spring the trap._ ”

“But ...” Tatewaki started to tremble as his patron’s regard suddenly seemed to burn, but gathered his courage to continue. “With the interruptions, will sufficient sacrifices have been performed to open your way?”

“ _With other children, no. But with your daughter ... yes, she will do well. Now do as I command!_ ”

And with that, the fragrant smoke was once again just smoke.

Tatewaki straightened up, frowning in spite of the faint trembling in his hands. Things were getting out of hand. He couldn’t put his finger on the moment he had gone from partner to pawn, the player to the played, but it had clearly happened and he didn’t like it. _I will just have to hope that my precautions are sufficient_.

/oOo\

Chibi-Usa looked up, brushing pink hair out of her eyes, as her sorta-mother walked through the doorway to join the rest of the family at the breakfast table (except for Shingo, away on a school trip) ... at least, Usagi _tried_ to walk through the doorway, the way she stumbled on empty air and had to clutch at the doorframe said as much as her sleepy eyes that she had gotten little sleep the previous night. Chibi-Usa didn’t doubt that as soon as the family meal was over, she’d be headed right back to bed.

Chibi-Usa felt her envy begin to burn at the thought, but this time she ruthlessly stamped on it — she had a _much_ more important problem than boredom and offended pride, and now that Usagi was here ... She shifted her attention from her sorta-mother to her ‘nothing sorta- about it’ grandparents — they _were_ the adults actually in charge of the home, after all. “Aunt Ikuko, Uncle Kenji, I have a ... I know someone ... I think Hotaru is being abused!”

She instantly had Usagi’s complete attention. “Who is Hotaru, and why do you think she’s being abused?”

“ ‘Who’s Hotaru’? I already _told_ you! At breakfast after the Disney trip, don’t you remember?”

Usagi’s eyes dropped. “Sorry, Sprout, I’ve been ... busy ... lately. So who’s Hotaru?”

“Baka-mama,” Chibi-Usa muttered, her envy rising again at the reminder of the fun her sorta-mother and sorta-aunts were having without her. But she again pushed it aside, and quickly recounted the story of her new friend.

Usagi listened intently throughout. “It’s wonderful that you’ve made a new friend,” she said when Chibi-Usa finished, “but why do you think she’d being abused?”

“I ... because ... she ...” Chibi-Usa stammered, caught off guard at Usagi’s abrupt manner. Suddenly, she was once again seeing her _real_ mother peeking through the often ditzy, often lazy young woman she’d known for the past several years — the woman she’d seen occasionally in the leader of the Senshi.

Usagi’s parents had heard the tales — they’d insisted on being told _everything_ when Usagi had finally told them about her nightlife — but what Chibi-Usa thought of as the ‘real’ Usagi had never needed to peak through at home and now they were staring at her in shock.

Chibi-Usa gathered her scattered thoughts, and slowly said, “She’s too thin. Her color isn’t healthy. She tires too easily. That could just be illness, but ... she’s skittish, hiding something. After school she doesn’t want to go home. And she _hates_ her father. And ... and ...” The child from the future searched for some way to describe the air of crushing despair that had seemed to hang over her friend when they’d met for lunch, and failed utterly. “ ... and her eyes are haunted.”

Usagi exchanged glances, silently trying to pass off the response to each other, and Chibi-Usa’s heart sank. Her sorta-mother finally lost the competition with her parents, and sighed. “Usagi —” (Chibi-Usa’s heart sank even further as the use of her actual name confirmed her fears.) “— that’s not enough, not to make an accusation —”

“But it’s true! I _know_ it’s true!”

“I believe you,” Usagi hastily agreed, holding up her hands at Chibi-Usa’s outburst. “But Child Services won’t ... and even if they did they couldn’t _do_ anything, not based on hearsay and feelings from a child.”

Chibi-Usa stared angrily at Usagi until she could no longer bear to stare at the sympathy on her sorta-mother’s face, then dropped her gaze to her breakfast plate as tears prickled behind her eyelids.  She whispered, “We have to do something, Hotaru’s _hurting_.”

“ _You_ have to do something.” Chibi-Usa looked up at that, just as Usagi reached across the table to take her hand. “You’re her friend, _be_ her friend. She doesn’t like going home? Give her somewhere else to go, as much as you can. I’m sure Mom will be fine with having her visit —”

“Of course!”

“— and maybe even sleep over sometimes. Give her a shoulder to cry on if she wants, try to get her talking without driving her away. If she’ll admit what’s actually happening, try to convince her to go to the child consultation center — especially if it’s the same day she was abused, that way they might be able to get DNA evidence of the abuse.”

Chibi-Usa straightened, nodding. “I can do that.”

“I know you can, Spore.” Usagi gently squeezed her hand. Chibi-Usa squeezed back, then let go and started plowing through her breakfast without concern for manners — she had to get to school before Hotaru, to be waiting at the gate for her.

/\

Usagi watched her sorta-daughter bolt for her room for her school backpack, and wryly shook her head. “So much for protecting her from the world’s more ... human evils.”

Her father asked, “Why didn’t you tell her about your current case? It would have given her some hope.”

“ _Because_ it would have given her some hope. Yes, the Titans might be dropping in on Hotaru’s home any morning now, but they might not — there’s a lot more abused children out there than I ever thought, and we don’t know how our unknown enemy is selecting his victims.” Yawning, Usagi pushed herself to her feet. “And now it’s my turn to be on my way.”

“You aren’t going back to bed?” Ikuko asked worriedly. “You only got in a few hours ago.”

Usagi waved off her mother’s concern with a smile and another yawn. “It’s just a meeting with the Senshi and the Titans, I’ll be home in a few hours and head straight to bed. If the pattern holds it’ll be another late night tonight, and I’ll be picking Mamoru up at the airport.”

/oOo\

Raven covered a yawn as she walked into the Cherry Hill shrine’s family room, then looked around at the others. Like her they were in their uniforms (though she’d left her cape in the bedroom), and no one else looked any more awake than she felt.

Moon looked up from her chair where Luna was curled up in her lap, purring with each stroke of a hand. “Where’s Mars?” Raven stiffened at the sharp edge to the blunt question — and the swirling mix of jealousy, shame and loving worry behind it — and Moon winced, ducking her head in a useless attempt to hide her blush. “Sorry, learning two nights ago that my purification doesn’t work on spirits was a nasty shock, and having it confirmed last night didn’t help.”

“Hey, it’s not like my lightning or force-grown plants, or Venus’s chains, did any better.” Jupiter’s nod toward Venus hid her worried glance at her leader as she placed the half-full plate of fresh-baked cookies on the table in the middle of the room. Moon had barely twitched at the aroma when she’d brought the plate in from the kitchen, and had satisfied herself with a single cookie — and she was only nibbling on that.

“True, your powers weren’t any more effective,” Robin said from the couch where he was ... well, _cuddling_ with Starfire. (Even if he would never admit to it and it was Starfire’s idea anyway ... mostly. And it gave him a way to hide his blush when Jupiter bent over — in her costume’s green micro-skirt — to put down the plate.) “But from what you’ve told us, Moon’s ability to banish or drive away demonic threats is her main contribution. Learning there might be entire classes of supernatural threats it doesn’t affect must be quite a shock.” As his blush faded he straightened, though he kept his arm around Starfire’s shoulders. “I’d say I’m sorry we weren’t there to help last night, but we couldn’t know in advance how quiet it would be for the Titans and I doubt any of us would have been any more of a help than most of you were ... except possibly Jinx.”

“We managed,” Raven said with a shrug as she walked over to an empty chair, then reconsidered — she would _not_ allow herself to pace, but her nerves were too tight to simply sit. “I’m just glad Moon’s secondary role is healing..” She shuddered as she remembered the ghost struggling against the grip of her tainted soul — the long, lanky hair; archaic Buddhist funeral headwear; white kimono with the empty lower hem blowing in a nonexistent wind; limp hands hanging from upraised arms; dim ghost lights floating around her ... every ghost story Ranma had been told growing up, come to ‘life’. And the sheer, overwhelming _hatred_ the woman had radiated like a burning flare as she howled her defiance — the piercing pain of bursting eardrums, the wet sensation of blood trickling down her neck to soak into her uniform’s neckline while Mars ignored her own bleeding ears as she desperately hurried to finish the ofuda needed to ward the ghost’s intended victim.

_Not that that pervert wouldn’t have deserved it_ , Raven thought, mood darkening at what Mercury reported after her hasty research the next day. But Raven could take comfort in the thought that people as narcissistic as that ... _man_ rarely learned better, however long he lived he was almost certainly Hild’s when he died. Still, the fact that Mercury’s research had also given Mars what she needed to exorcise the woman he’d driven to suicide — and almost certainly sent _her_ to Raven’s grandmother in the process — left a bad taste in her mouth.

With the ease of long practice, Raven pushed aside the dark thoughts and the _hunger_ that accompanied them. What had kicked off that line of thought? Oh, yes, Usagi asking about Rei. “Mars won’t be coming, she slept through the alarm and I thought she needed the sleep. We can bring her up to speed later.”

The other blonde Senshi finished feeding her last bite of Makoto’s famous cookies to an Artemis curled across her shoulders, and grinned. “She didn’t even wake up when you untangled yourself? She _must_ be tired!”

Raven had been right, once Ami passed the word about her and Rei sharing a bed (if just for sleeping) all of them — but especially Minako — had been doing their best to turn Raven’s face the same shade as her hair and mostly succeeding. Now, though, she ignored the giggles and chuckles that circled the room. Instead, she gave in to temptation and began to pace. “I don’t like the fact that the Titans didn’t face an opponent this morning. The last time that happened, the situation escalated.”

Robin pulled his arm from around Starfire’s shoulder (making her pout) and leaned forward. “You’re right. Who can we call in, in case we need more help? Titans East have their own issue they’re dealing with right now.”

Moon perked up. “Mam ... uh, Tuxedo Kamen will be arriving this afternoon!”

Raven suppressed a wince — the Senshi’s most faithful ally had proven himself over the years, but thanks to Ranma’s experiences with the Kunos and Titans enemies like the ‘Amazing’ Mumbo his whole shtick made her nervous — though from the pure happiness Moon was radiating, she wouldn’t appreciate Raven mentioning that. “That’s one, who else?”

“There’s us.”

Raven whirled toward the doorway, and and felt the world go slightly cool thanks to the blood draining from her face as she gaped at what she found there — or rather, _who_. Wearing a black-trimmed fuku with a black micro-skirt as if all the calm aplomb of a business suit was Setsuna. But the boy-cut-platinum blonde in the blue-skirted fuku and her sea-green-haired inseparable companion were the two that had Raven’s jaw dropping.

Michiru was wearing her own white and blue-green fuku with the same aplomb as Setsuna, but Haruka was tugging down on the hem of her micro-skirt. “I cannot _believe_ this outfit,” she demanded (a complaint Raven suspected had already been made repeatedly, from the other two’s resigned amusement). “Why didn’t you people design something _practical_?”

Mercury glanced at Raven before refocusing on the trio. “We didn’t design the uniforms, they came with the identities.”

Haruka glared at Setsuna. “ _You_ designed these perverts’ wet dreams?”

Setsuna shrugged. “They were originally for sixteen-year-olds. Yes, the skirts were a little short even then, but combined with the way they acted like a team of magical girls straight out of the most clichéd manga it gave them an air of innocence perfect for selling them to the public.” She paused for a moment, one finger tapping a lip. “I suppose it _might_ be time for a change — _after_ this is all over. So Raven, won’t you introduce us?”

But the redhead just felt behind her for a chair to sink into, dropping her head into her hands. “Your mothers are going to _kill_ me — painfully and slowly.”

“It won’t be that bad, sonny-boy, they remember Nerima. Your luck doesn’t seem to be any better now. Besides, your mother’s the only one that would try to put that family blade you returned to good use, Nabiki would empty all your bank accounts and ruin your credit rating while Kasumi would just cry.”

Raven lifted her head and laughed as the gnome-like elder pogoed into the room past her wards. “Please, anything but that! Threats to my life are nothing new and poverty doesn’t scare me, but disappointing Kasumi ... ?”

Ku Lon and Haruka joined in Raven’s laughter. “It’s amazing how Mama Kasumi can make you feel like you’ve kicked a kitten with just a look, isn’t it?” Michiru agreed.

As the laughter died down, Raven rose to her feet. “Okay, everyone, these are Meioh Setsuna, Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru — you’ll remember them as the princesses Daria, Malaina and Hali. I’m guessing they’re Sailors Pluto, Uranus and Neptune. The old lady on the staff is Elder Ku Lon of Joketsuzoku, Haruka’s great-great-grandmother and looking every year ... ow!” She rubbed her head where Ku Lon’s staff had smacked her.

“Respect your elders, sonny-boy!”

“Yeah, yeah ...” She ignored a fresh round of laughter — everyone joining in this time, the traitors — and finished with, “Michiru is Ranma’s half-sister, though I’d been dead at least three months by the time she was conceived.” The newcomers bowed (except for Ku Lon, who simply nodded), and Raven introduced the Senshi (minus Mars) and Robin and Starfire, then waved them to the few seats remaining. They settled (Neptune on Uranus’s lap for space, the pair ignoring questioning looks from Moon and Jupiter, and Venus’s knowing smile), but Raven was stilled too keyed up to sit, ignoring the space on the couch left open for her. “Please, don’t any of you take this wrong, but Meioh-san — Pluto — when you said that Uranus and Neptune lacked experience I thought you were just talking about their Senshi powers. Was it really a good idea to involve civilians? This is shaping up to be almost as bad as Trigon last year.”

Pluto glanced at Ku Lon out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t really expect that they’ll do much fighting, and they’ll have me and their sensei to guard them,” she reassured Raven (and the Amazon, Raven noted, from the way the tension tightening the doll-sized woman eased). “But there are several artifacts that might be useful that only they can use.” She rose to her feet. “Girls?”

Michiru hopped off Haruka’s lap and the pair flanked Pluto. The three raised their hands, and in the blink of an eye the hands were filled — Pluto’s with a long, ornate staff topped with a silver valentine’s heart framing a massive, glowing ruby; Neptune’s with a golden-framed mirror with a green-enameled back; and Uranus’s with ...

“Is that a cutlass?” Robin asked, straightening in his seat.

Uranus blushed. “Set — ah, _Sailor Pluto_ tells me that our imaginations impact how the artifacts look, and ... I fell in love with hokey pirate movies when I was a kid. I pushed Grandmother for some training so I know a little how to use the Space Sword,” she went on in a rush, “but Pluto says its power isn’t dependent on skill.”

Robin waited a moment, then asked, “And that power is ... ?”

Neptune’s blush deepened. “It can cut through space and banish other-dimensional beings back to where they came from.”

“Useful. The mirror?”

“Neptune held it up. “The Deep Aqua Mirror can see through and dispel any illusion, can show anyone that I or a bearer I willingly loan it to knows at least something about, and can send the soul of the bearer through to ... well, _haunt_ whoever is shown.”

“Also useful.” Robin shifted his focus to Pluto. “And the staff?”

Pluto shrugged. “Beyond the fact that I am skilled with a naginata and the staff is similarly balanced, not a thing. But I can focus my attacks through it and our enemies don’t have to know that my powers are inherent rather than in the staff, do they?”

Robin grinned. “Smart.”

“Kaioh-san — Neptune, you said your mirror would work for anyone you loan it to?”

Everyone turned to look at Moon, and Neptune nodded. “Yes, it will.”

“May I try it?”

Neptune glanced over at Pluto, and at her slight nod walked over to Moon. The Senshi leader rose to her feet and accepted the mirror. “How does it work?”

“Just say the name of someone you know while holding the mirror and ...wanting to see him, it’ll do the rest.”

Venus grinned. “Going to sneak a peek at your Mamo-chan?”

Ignoring her fellow blonde’s teasing, Moon softly said, “Show me Hotaru.”

_That_ got everyone’s attention. Raven stepped over beside Moon and Neptune and looked at the young teenage girl with shoulder-length raven hair and haunted eyes sitting at a school desk and stiffened — the girl was unmistakably a Kuno. _And there was a child with the Kunos in Rei’s vision...._ “Who is she?”

“A new friend of my daughter. Robin, Starfire, you’ll want to see her — if Chibi-Usa is right, you may be meeting her one of these mornings.”

Raven’s vision started to turn pink, and she felt the others shift away slightly. “She’s being abused?”

“The Spore thinks so.”

As Robin and Starfire looked at the child in the mirror, Raven took a moment to stamp down on the anger, then frowned thoughtfully as her vision returned to normal. While coincidences happened she _knew_ karma played its part — and now alarm bells were ringing in the back of her mind. When the Titans had seen their fill of Hotaru, Raven held out her hand. “May I try?”

Moon glanced at Neptune, and when she nodded handed the mirror to Raven. The redhead held the mirror for a long moment, stunned at the amount of sheer _power_ locked away in it — an artifact, indeed? — then said, “Show me Kuno Tatewaki!”

Nothing, only her reflection.

She frowned ... she had been so certain —

“Of course! Show me Tatewaki.”

Her reflection vanished, replaced by a view of a nondescript office, a tall, earth-haired man dressed as a typical salaryman typing away at a computer. _Not_ what she had been expecting.

Moon looked over her shoulder. “From your stories, I expected something ... flashier.”

“So did I.”

The other Senshi gathered around, and Raven waited until everyone had had a god look before saying, “Show me Kodachi!”

The image of the office vanished, replaced by a bedroom — and a raven-haired woman wearing a common house dress, pulling clothes out of a dresser and dropping them beside an open suitcase on the floor at her feet.

“She’s ... leaving?”

Raven bit back her instinctual snark at the obvious answer to Moon’s question. “We’re running out of time. Ami, can you hack Chibi-Moon’s school’s database, get Hotaru’s family name?”

“Of course.”

“Good, I’ll be back, hopefully in a few hours — I’m going to get some answers.” She turned toward the doorway, then paused as Venus spoke up.

“I thought you said all your contacts came up dry or were out of touch.”

“They are, I’m going straight to the source.”

“What!?” Moon gasped. “But you said that was too dangerous!”

“No, I said that was too _chancy_. Mama Urd and Grandmother have their roles to play, but they love me so any punishment wouldn’t be _too_ severe.” _I think_. “But like I said, we’re running out of time, and the stakes are too high. We _need_ to know what we’re dealing with.”

Robin and Starfire blanched at the word ‘grandmother’ (they’d met the Daimakaicho of Niflheim once when she’d dropped in to visit her granddaughter, and though she’d been perfectly amiable the sensation of overwhelming dark Power had been palpable — deliberately, Raven suspected). If Raven’s complexion wasn’t already as white as a human could be she would have paled herself as she was swamped by the concern from everyone in the room. But she couldn’t help from smiling — she might be a half-demon that almost destroyed the world, but she had friends that really cared. _Especially the one that isn’t here_ , she thought, remembering the girl she’d left sleeping on their futons, waist-length raven hair spread across her like a blanket.

“Hey, trust me, I’ll be fine.”

And before anyone else could object she was gone.


	16. Choosing a Side

The blonde, skimpily dressed corporeal spirit acting as the file room librarian while she served her time looked up when the door to the library slid open, already smiling even before she saw the pale, fiery-haired form of her mistress’s adopted granddaughter. _Oh, good maybe something interesting will happen, it’s been boring lately and Furcas hasn’t been around for playtime in awhile_. And while Raven’s last visit hadn’t been exactly _exciting_ , playing her part by letting the Daimakaicho know about Raven’s visit, then seeing (and more importantly, _hearing_ ) the fallout had been fun ... and lucrative. _And now I get to do it again_.

Anastasiya’s smile widened slightly at the thought of the new favors she would rake in (Niflheim’s coin in trade), and to hide it she hastily said, “Welcome back, how can I help you —”

Without breaking stride Raven thrust one arm forward, and a wave of dark power slammed into her, knocking her over the back of her chair. Before she could hit the floor a broad ribbon wrapped around her, from ankles up legs, thighs and breasts to cover her mouth, and lifted her into the air.

Raven strode toward her, and Anastasiya shivered at the red glowing eyes over bared fangs, the oppressive weight of demonic presence — attributes Raven had _not_ had on her first visit — and the doubts the librarian had had about the Titan’s parentage, inherited or adopted, vanished.

/\

Raven leaned her chair back, black fire coruscating around clenched fists, ribbons lashing out to play across the table and walls in trails of ‘sparks’ visible only because they were even more black than the darkness of the cubicle. If computer hadn’t been a human machine instead of a ‘hard light’ keyboard and holographic screen, it would have been reduced to smoking fragments.

The half-demon closed her eyes, fighting for control — her vision had gone so red she could no longer read the white-on-black screen that she could no longer read, and she _needed_ to continue her research!

But ... _Moloch! It’s Moloch!_ The thought again crawled through her mind yet again like a broken record, and a twisting black ribbon hammered across the ceiling, leaving yet another blackened trail behind it. _That sick, pedophilic bastard, I’ll ... I’ll ..._

A muffled whimper from the cubicle corner behind her was like a splash of cold water, breaking her rising fury. The shivers running through her body died away, the crimson in her eyes faded away, her fists unclenched, and she finally sighed as she glanced over her shoulder. “Sorry, Anastasiya, didn’t mean to scare you like that. I’ll be good ... well, not harmful, anyway.”

Anastasiya visibly relaxed. She wriggled, trying to get as comfortable as possible with her ankles and wrists bound together with plastic twists, and smiled around her gag.

Raven actually giggled at the wistful lust she was picking up now that the librarian’s fear was fading. “Sorry, even if I didn’t already have a girlfriend ... I think ... I’m not into bondage from either direction. But I can’t have you telling Grandmother what I’ve been up to yet, so once I’m done I’ll hide you somewhere —” There was no way she was going to leave any woman alone, bound, and gagged in a public place in the middle of Hell, however much the spirit’s very presence there meant she’d probably deserve whatever happened to her. “— and leave a timed alert to let Mom know where to find you.” Her giggles turned into a laugh as the wistful lust turned into pouty lust, and turned back to the computer terminal. She knew who and how, but she didn’t know _why_ — why Hotaru, why Raven’s mothers and their forces were gearing up to go to war with each other.

What karmic ties, if any, bound Hotaru to the Senshi.

 _Maybe the tie isn’t to the Senshi, maybe it’s to you. What if she’s Ukyo?_ She didn’t know what to think of that possibility.

/\

 _Okay, so she isn’t Ukyo_. The half-relieved, half-disappointed thought was vague, made distant by her shock at what she’d learned ... though she didn’t really know why she was so stunned, it wasn’t like she shouldn’t have seen it coming. She’d been thinking about karmic ties, after all.

 _I don’t have time for this, I have to_ move _!_

She typed furiously for a moment then shut down the terminal. The keyboard and screen vanished, and she rose to her feet. “The message to Mom’s set up, let’s get you tucked away.” A broad ribbon of dark soul energy lifted the bound spirit, and she turned to the door as it slid open, stepped through, and froze in place. In the cubicle behind her there was a muffled yelp of pain as Anastasiya dropped to the floor.

Leaning against a central (and totally unnecessary) pillar, this time in her tall and stunningly beautiful and even more skimpily dressed adult form, was Hild.

“Good morning, Granddaughter, you took your time.”

/\

Raven sat in front of Hild’s working desk, fighting not to hunch her shoulders and drop her eyes. She was nineteen, for ... Whoever’s sake! For the second time, even! (Well ... Ranma had _almost_ made it to nineteen...) Mama Urd’s hand on her shoulder, her love rolling over her daughter, would have helped if she wasn’t so worried herself.

Hild simply sat staring at them from her side of the desk, and where Urd was an emotional beacon her grandmother was a black hole.

Finally, Raven could take the silence no longer. “I don’t want to seem like a masochist, but I’m _really_ in a hurry. So _please_ just let me know what my punishment is so I can get back to my friends. They ... need me.”

Hild’s lips quirked for a moment at that very undemonic admission, then she pinched her and sighed. “I’m afraid it isn’t that easy.”

Urd’s hand tightened on Raven’s shoulder. “Why not?”

“Because this time there’s no finessing it. Raven clearly accessed files she had no right to access, she clearly used her position as your daughter — and my granddaughter — to do so ...and Anastasiya is possibly the worst gossip in all of Niflheim. By now, word of Raven’s little incursion will already be spreading.”

Urd stiffened. “Wait, you have a known gossiped running the only place in Niflheim that anyone other than you can access the _really_ important files? _Why?_ ”

“It gets even better.” Hild grinned viciously. “Or did you forget that not only does Anastasiya run the library, she sees when and who accesses every single file? Any attempt to access them secretly will ultimately fail ... unless Anastiya is taken out first, which is _another_ tripwire.” Hild shrugged. “And just that will happen sooner or later, since I doubt she’ll learn anything from Raven’s visit. Why else would I put someone who’s down here because of her love for malicious gossip in charge of the library other than to teach her the lesson she needs to learn?”

Urd’s tone was dry, though the worry flowing into Raven spiked. “Because it makes the library practically useless for anyone that wants to hide what they’re doing?”

“Well, that, too.” Hild smirked for a moment, before her expression blanked. “But as I said, Raven, there’s no hiding what you did. If I let you get away with it, I’ll be seen as weaker — well, weaker, my public statement of love for my daughter has already convinced many I’ve gone soft — and not only threatens my position but puts you at risk from those looking for leverage against me.”

Raven found she _was_ hunched over. She straightened, took a deep breath and smiled up at her mother for a moment gently as she gently removed Urd’s hand from her shoulder. Refocusing on her grandmother, she asked, “So what is my punishment?”

Hild gazed back for a long moment before smiling approvingly. “Good for you. This situation cannot continue, with you half-mortal superhero, and half-demonic heir once removed to Niflheim. You have a choice — you can either become purely mortal, or purely infernal.”

Raven’s jaw dropped, mind frozen. Then that singing moment shattered as her mind raced off in all directions in a panic, following all the implications, before she closed her eyes and breathed deeply as she wrestled herself into submission. Mission accomplished, she reopened her eyes. “I can see how I would no longer be welcome here if I chose mortality — though Constantine seems to drop in whenever her chooses — and I imagine the same would be true in Asgard. Would I ever see you again, or any of my mothers?”

Hild chuckled mirthlessly. “Yes, Constantine does seem to make himself at home here sometimes, doesn’t he? I hope you never pay the price he did for that ... familiarity.

“Your mothers, yes, you’d still be able to visit — they promised that they would always be there for you, in the home you grew up, so long as you lived. But for myself and your grandfather, no. Or at least, much more rarely. We cannot show that level of ... connection ... with a pure mortal.”

“And all my powers are tied to my demonic heritage, I’d become just one more civilian — a consultant, left behind while the Titans, the Senshi ... everyone ... actually deal with the threats.” It would take _decades_ to rebuild herself to the point she’d reached as Ranma a year ago. She could go the Constantine route, but ... _No. Just, no._

 “But if I choose to become a demon all the anger, the hatred that I fought so long, it’ll _all_ be back ... no it’ll be worse than ever! And Rei’s mortal, she’ll leave me behind, when she reincarnates she won’t _remember_ me — if she wants to have anything to do with me at all, the Senshi are _demon hunters_.”

Urd’s hand again rested on Raven’s shoulder, and she realized she was curled into a ball in her chair, shivering. _And I thought Usagi was being naïve when she was feeling sorry for Setsuna’s pain.... Mama Urd!_

“And my mothers promised they’d be living where they raised me for as long as I lived, so I’d always have a home if I needed it. If I become immortal, they’ll be stuck there _forever_.”

Urd’s hand tightened, but her concern for her daughter never wavered. “Don’t worry about us, kitling,” she murmured, her voice gentle, “that would be no hardship.”

“And unnecessary.” Unlike her daughter, Hild’s voice was iron, as bleached of all emotion as the black hole she’d become.

Urd shifted, confusion and anger mixing in with her love and concern, and Raven hastily straightened in her seat before her mother could lose her temper, doing her best to suppress her shivers. It it wasn’t like she _really_ had a choice, after all. Yes, she would be irrevocably placing herself under her grandmother’s authority, but Hild loved her, she knew it ... she’d _sensed_ it — she would just have to trust her. And there was still Moloch to deal with, a possible invasion of all the terrors of Hell to prevent or beat back, and she refused to be left behind while her friends charged into battle. She would just have to deal with the consequences after. _Setsuna managed ... if poorly ... I can do better_.

“Very well, I will embrace the demon ... _if_ you make two promises. I’ll be allowed to _immediately_ return to the Senshi and the Titans and fight alongside them against Moloch and whoever else joins him in this lunacy, and afterward I will not be given any assignments or duties that separate me and Rei for long periods of time — as _we_ define it.”

Hild’s eyes narrowed, and when she spoke the cold steel was gone, replaced by silky smoothness. “Are you dictating ... to _me_?”

Just like that the shivers ... no, the _shakes_ ... were back, and it was all Raven could do to keep her back straight and her eyes level when all she wanted was to wrap herself around her mother and bury her face in her shoulder until the scary monster went away. Not trusting her voice, she jerked a nod.

And just like that Hild seemed to blossom, her face softening, her love and approval suddenly filling the room. “Good for you! The last thing I need in my second heir is another yeswoman, I already have plenty of sycophants.” A door materialized in the wall to their left, and she rose to her feet and strode toward it. “Come on, time’s wasting, you’ll want to get back to your ... friends.” Raven scrambled out of her seat and hurried to join her, Urd right behind her, and almost ran into Hild when she abruptly stopped and turned. “But first strip, you won’t want to go back stark naked.”

A blushing Raven hastily complied, unclasping her cloak, shimmying out of the leotard, kicking off her boots. Shivering at the feel of cool air on her bare torso and arms, she followed Hild through the door with Urd right behind them only to almost get knocked forward arms pinwheeling when she froze and her mother plowed into her. Urd caught her shoulder in time to keep her upright, and Raven flashed her a grateful smile before refocusing on the room.

The room was not a large one, perhaps fifteen feet to a side, and floor was covered by an intricate pattern of grooves that she instantly recognized as an unpowered circle. But she barely noticed it or the cold metal of the floor beneath bare feet as was the wall directly across from her caught her attention — polished to the point that she could see her reflection as if in glass. She ran trembling hands along silky soft pearl-white thighs, across her firm abdomen, around perky breasts, through hair as fiery as the flame her love controlled. A single tear ran down one cheek.

Hild stepped up beside her and softly murmured, “It isn’t too late to change your mind.”

Raven wiped at her face and shook her head. “No. What do I do?”

“It’s easy enough.” Hild waved Urd to one corner. “Shield, as strong as you can.” Refocusing on Raven, she pointed to the middle of the circle filling most of the floor. “Stand there, close your eyes, and ... _embrace_ all the anger and hatred you’ve been fighting all your life.”

“That’s it?” and incredulous Raven demanded.

“That’s it, the circle will do the rest.”

Raven nodded, hesitated, then blurted out, “I wish there was time for Mama Mara and Mama Lind to be here.”

Hild smiled wistfully (with a hint of nervousness — there were _not_ going to be happy with her). “So do, I, child. So do I.” She stepped to the corner across the room from where Urd was barely visible behind a shimmering translucent white dome, and raised her arms. A shimmering translucent black wall followed her arms to form her own dome.

Raven stepped to the middle of the room, ran her eyes along the reflection of her nude body one more time, then closed her eyes, took a deep breath as she focused inward on the anger and hatred that was always seething underneath the surface of her mind as deep as she could push it, and _relaxed_.

All the pain she had stored up and forced away was released — her life as Ranma abused by his father, pursued by fiancées that saw him as a possession, a prize, a tool to fix whatever was wrong with their lives, ignored by those that might have helped, finally attacked and betrayed before and after death by those that should have loved him most; her life as Raven with mothers that loved her but couldn’t stop the relentless unrolling of the dreams of her previous life, a grandmother that had done nothing about the rape and humiliation that had been inflicted on Ranma during the first year after her death, a grandfather that had engineered little Raven’s terrible reliving of Ranma’s life.

Nevermind that she had struggled to forgive those that had abused or failed Ranma and mostly succeeded. (She still needed the circle around her bed back at Titans’ Tower to keep her occasional dreams of Genma and Xian Pu from trashing her room.) Nevermind that her mothers and aunts had done the best they could, that her grandmother’s hands had been tied, that as Ranma she had _volunteered_ for the role as Raven her grandfather had engineered to end the threat of Trigon forever. None of that mattered to the anger she had locked away, and she _shrieked_ as it exploded through her.

Her eyes flew open to brilliant black-red as the circle soaked up the all the hatred- and anger-fueled demonic power flooding out of her and came to life, blackly shining brighter and brighter, until all that power imploded back into its source. Raven _shrieked_ again, every nerve seeming to burn white-hot at pain’s infliction rather than its release. It wasn’t as bad as her dissolution to open up the way for Trigon, but neither was she focusing everything she had on protecting her friends and her vision went from crimson to white for one long singing moment.

Then it was over, her feet clacking onto the metal of the floor as she dropped from where she’d been hovering. Her knees gave and dropped her into a curled up ball.

“Raven!”

She barely heard her mother’s shout. Then Urd’s arms circled her, pulled her into a familiar lap and the equally familiar feel of her mother’s brilliant, conflicted soul. She clutched at her and wailed, “Mama, _I’m sorry!_ ” before breaking into sobs as she babbled about forgiveness and dreams and failures and anger. Her mother rocked her while World of Elegance self-manifested to wrap her own white-and-black-swirled arms around them both as she crooned a soft lullaby.

Finally, Raven fell silent as she went limp, her stream-of-consciousness self-condemnation spent.

Hild knelt down beside them, radiating love, reaching out to stroke Raven’s cheek. “Feeling better?”

Raven’s eyes widened at the question. “I ... yes, I do.” The ever-present anger was still there, even closer to the surface than before ... _much_ closer ... and she knew she was going to be spending the same long hours in meditation as before Trigon to keep it under control. But probably not more, because that anger had an impersonal feel to it ... felt _clean_ , unattached to any person or event.

And the clock was still ticking.

With a grateful smile up at Mother Urd and World of Elegance, Raven reluctantly pushed herself out of their arms and — with the same odd clacking sound from before — onto her feet ... where she promptly overbalanced. This time it was Hild that caught her shoulder to keep her from falling, and Raven grabbed her outstretched arm for balance as she stared down at the black cloven hooves that had replaced her feet. After a long moment, she said, “It looks like I won’t be walking anywhere for awhile, until I can learn to walk again.”

Letting go of Hild’s arm, she floated up off the floor and finally focused again on the wall only to find it pitted and blackened. Hild grabbed her hips and turned her to face the corner Urd had shielded, as reflective-shiny as before, and Raven could see her new self. She ran her hands along her body as she had before.

Her skin was as silky-soft as before, her breasts as firm, but that skin was again gray. And rather than run her fingers through her hair, instead she fingered the two tiny nubs above her eyes that she guessed were budding horns. _At least I only have_ two _eyes, instead of four._ She twisted to look at her butt — as tight as always, and no spade-tipped tail like she’d half-expected. “This’s gonna make it a little hard ta go out in public.” She winced — she’d been falling back into Ranma’s speech patterns when stressed lately, had to watch that....

Hild cleared her throat, catching Raven’s attention. “I can teach you an illusion spell to hide your appearance, and show you how, with practice, you can shapeshift to hide it even better. But first, I believe you have a child to save and a demon to teach a lesson?”

“Right!” Raven’s vision briefly flashed red at the reminder, before she forced the seething anger back down. Whirling, she flew at the door, slowing down just enough that she didn’t smash into it before it could slide open. She snatched up her leotard from the floor and struggled into it, latched her gold- and ruby-chain belt around her hips, swung her cloak around her shoulders and fastened it about her neck. She paused for a long moment, her gaze shifting between her ankle boots and her hooves, before shrugging and flying toward the door to Hild’s office, leaving the boots lying on the floor. It wasn’t like she needed them anymore.


	17. Pre-Battle Briefing

Urd waited until the office door closed behind her daughter before rounding on Hild. Letting go of the building anger she’d been suppressing since she’d joined Raven and Hild in her grandmother’s office, she snarled, “What the _Hell_ was that all about?” (The years spent raising an empath had trained all three of Raven’s mothers _very_ well in the art of controlling and even suppressing emotions, at least temporarily. Urd’s deepest regret was that their training had failed them under the stress of Raven’s last year living with them, to the point that it drove her away.)

Hild simply cocked an eyebrow. “Why, daughter, whatever do you mean?”

Urd gaped, struggled to find some way to force that statement to make any sense at all — to not blow up at the Daimakaicho, whatever their relationship. When she finally believed she could speak without ranting, she ground out, “You are _not_ toying with me the same way you just did with Raven. You can’t tell me you didn’t manipulate the situation so that Raven would have no choice but to accept your ‘offer’. Why force her to become a full demon, when Rei is a demon hunter? Why force her to become immortal, when Rei is mortal? _Why?_ ”

Hild gazed at her fulminating daughter for a long moment, then slowly shook her head in clear disappointment. “You didn’t look at Chibi-Usagi’s file, did you?”

Urd blinked, her anger derailed at the apparent non sequitur. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t see the point — since she’s from the future, all that would be in her file is what little time she’s spent in our time. And her mother’s keeping her out of this, anyway.”

“That is where you are wrong.” Hild leaned forward, propping her chin on her entwined hands. “The files follow the chronology of the _individual_ , which is why the files of time travelers are classified at the highest level — so high they can be accessed only with my permission, and now yours. But then, you’d already know all that if you’d _studied_ the Senshi’s files instead of just skimmed them. Just how far into the future do you think Chibi-Usagi comes from?”

“Uh ... a few decades?” a blushing Urd weakly offered.

“Try a few centuries ... ten of them, to be exact. And who do you suppose is a part of her big, happy family, but her Auntie Raven and Auntie Mars?”

“Oh ... um ... wow ... so you did this because you knew you’d done it?”

“No, the time stream is more flexible than that. Chibi-Usagi’s file just let me know it shouldn’t mess Raven up. Haven’t you studied how we deal with time travel at all?”

Urd shrugged. “Father has everything pertaining to time travel stamped ‘Don’t touch!’, and assigns the cases to a special squad. Not that I would have let that stop me if I needed to know, but I never did.”

Hild leaned back in her chair and pinched her nose with a weary sigh. “It seems I’ve made some unwarranted assumptions about your education, and of Skuld’s ability to keep a secret. After this is over we’ll have to make a thorough review of what you know, and how well it matches up with what the heir of Niflheim _needs_ to know.

“But for Raven, no, I didn’t ‘manipulate the situation’, I simply stood back and let her walk into the trap she set for herself. Though I can’t say I’m sorry — with you, Mara and Lind for mothers, Belldandy and Skuld for aunts, and me and Kami-sama as grandparents she was always going to end up going either demonic or divine. She _had_ to, anything else would leave her too much of a target for my enemies in both Niflheim and Asgard, without the protection of being a firm member of either. Things have been quiet over the past year thanks to the shellacking we took during Trigon’s invasion,” — Hild kept her face straight, but Urd couldn’t keep from smirking — “but the survivors are getting their feet under them again. And as rules-bound and hands-off as Asgard is she would have been miserable there.

“Besides, now I can help deal with her anger. Simply repressing it and hoping it goes away like she has been won’t end well for anyone, not with her heritage, not in the long run. But she’s been ignoring our hints that she might need some help, even with the occasional slip she’s suffered as a Titan. Now, she isn’t going to have a choice.”

“I —” Urd paused as a thought _finally_ struck her. “Have you discussed this with Father?”

“Of course I have.” Hild smiled softly, the hard edge that was almost always there vanishing for a moment. “He’s agreed that this is best for Raven, at least for now.” Her smile growing to bare her teeth, she added, “Especially once we discussed her first assignment. Raven can always follow in the footsteps of her Mama Mara if she comes to disagree.” She straightened in her chair, smile vanishing. “Now, you need to know the part your Furies will play in the upcoming battle. You’re going to enjoy this....”

/oOo\

Rei fumed as she paced (stalked) back and forth across the length of the family room. By the time she’d woken up Raven had been gone for hours ... hours! The meeting had been held, Titans had come and gone (and Ami with them), and she hadn’t _been there_ for it! And it had been hours since, where _was_ she? How was Rei supposed to watch her back if her former-boyfriend/fiancé-maybe-future-girlfriend didn’t take her _with_ her? _And could she have taken you with her, where she went? That’s the whole point, after all — access to records none of the rest of us have_.

But Rei was through listening to the voice of reason in the back of her mind.

“Will you stop? You’re just working yourself up.” Rei whirled to glare at Minako, sitting on the couch. She hadn’t intended for her fury to splash, but Usagi flinched and carefully sidled along the couch away from the Senshi’s field commander while Luna and Artemis leaped from their laps and vanished under the couch. But Minako didn’t so much as twitch, merely looked back calmly. “At this rate, when Raven does return your blowup will make the rant when you found she’d gone without you look mild. Is that what you want?”

“No!” _Everyone_ flinched back from Rei’s scream, and she closed her eyes, clenched her fists, and took deep, calming breaths. “It’s just that this was the kind of stunt that Ranma pulls — pulled — _all the time_ and I am so _sick_ of it! I can take care of myself!” She froze and whispered, “I ... I can take care of myself.” She blindly reached back for the padded arm of the stuffed chair behind her, then fell into it and curled up into a ball.

The others exchanged worried glances, and Usagi rose from the couch, shook off Minako’s warning hand on her arm, and walked over to kneel beside her friend. “Rei? What’s wrong?”

Rei curled even tighter, and in a muffled voice replied, “I said almost just that, just before I attacked Ranma from behind and got him — her! — killed ... sent her off to hell to get _raped_ for a _year_. And now I’m just the same as I was then. How can she even bear to be in the same _room_ with me?”

Usagi stood up with a sigh. “Scoot over.”

“What?” Rei peeked up at her friend. “There’s not enough room.”

“We’ll make room. Scoot over.” When Rei just stared up at her, Usagi grinned. “Okay, you asked for it....” She dove forward, hands outstretched, and Rei shrieked as eager fingers sought out every ticklish spot Usagi had discovered in two years of friendship. She writhed in her chair until she slid out of it onto the floor and Usagi triumphantly plopped down in her place, then reached down and pulled Rei up into her lap and wrapped her arms around her. They must have looked ridiculous, given their respective heights, but Rei found she didn’t care. Usagi murmured, “Feeling better?”

“Calmer, anyway,” Rei murmured back.

A giggling Minako carried one of the dining room chairs over beside the pair and sat down. Luna and Artemis peeked out from under the couch then scurried over to jump into Venus’s lap, keeping uncharacteristically silent. Makoto followed with her own chair, pausing by the distinctly uncomfortable newcomers to murmur, “Why don’t you two move to the kitchen or join Meioh-san and Elder Ku Lon in the garden for a little while?”

“Good idea,” Haruka agreed, and she and Michiru beat a hasty exit.

Makoto continued on and sat herself on Usagi and Rei’s other side. “It’s the memories, isn’t it?” Rei twisted to look at her, and she smiled sympathetically. “Raven’s had her entire life to get used to Ranma’s memories, five years since she remembered how it ended the second time. You got Akane’s life all at once and the memories are all fresh and new — overwhelming, aren’t they?”

“I ... yes, they are. I can remember Akane’s school years better than my own. The sheer _relief_ I ... she felt when she successfully tricked Ran — Raven into killing her, her overwhelming anger when Lind saved her life at the last moment ...” She buried her face in Usagi’s shoulder, their leader’s arms around her tightening.

“And then you meet your past life sisters and it goes really well, but they’re so much older than you remember — they have a _daughter_ that’s older than you. _Raven_ has a sister that’s older than you.”

“Yes.” Rei felt herself tightening up and forced herself to relax. “It’s like in the blink of an eye ... I’m glad we don’t remember our past lives, the past three thousand years. It would be horrible, growing up remembering life after life, loved ones dead and gone for centuries. How did Ranma — how did _Raven_ manage it, even _one_ life?”

Usagi was just opening her mouth to answer when she felt the odd sensation that always made her shiver, that told her that her communicator in her own ‘bag of holding’ was receiving a call. From the way the others jerked and hastily summoned their communicators, it was a group call. Hastily pushing Rei off her lap she summoned her own and pushed the ‘accept’ button. The screen lit up to show Raven, two red eyes glowing from the shadow cast by her hood.

Raven started speaking before Usagi had a chance to greet her. “I have the information we need, you need to come get me. Rei, I’m at the temple where you met Mama Urd — Auntie Bell has set the wards to allow you in this one time.”

“ _Come get me and the Titans first_ ,” Ami said quickly, “ _then we can deal with this as a single group._ ”

“Good idea, do it.” Raven vanished from the screen.

Usagi stared at the blank screen for a moment, then looked over at the Mau. “Luna, Artemis — ?”

“We’ll stay here,” Artemis hastily said, shifting his gaze from where Venus’ communicator had projected a holographic image. “Raven didn’t look ... well, she can probably do without being around anyone that looks like a cat right now.” Luna nodded her agreement.

“Thank you.” Usagi smiled briefly at the two advisors, then rose to her feet. “Everyone, let’s go.”

/\

It was the work of a few minutes and two Senshi teleports, and in a daytime-dimmed flash of light the united Senshi, Ku Lon, and the Titans appeared in the backyard Mars remembered from her brief visit earlier. Mars glanced around to get her bearings and started toward the house, only to realize that only the Titans were following her. She impatiently turned back around. “Come _on!_ What’s keeping — oh.”

The other seven Senshi and Ku Lon were all staring awestruck at the empty space twenty feet off the ground, struck silent by the divine energy washing over them from the invisible oval of pure power. Finally, Mercury whispered, “Is ... is that ... ?”

“A portal to heaven, or at least the suburb on the outskirts where I grew up.”

The sound of Raven’s voice was like a sudden cold shower, shocking them out of their awe, and they turned just in time to see Starfire slam into her first female friend on Earth, sweeping her off her feet in a tight embrace and spinning around a foot off the deck that ran along the back of the house. “Friend Raven, you are all right!”

“Air ...”

A blushing Starfire lowered them to the ground, released her friend and floated back. “Forgive me, we were so worried ... when you ... left?” her voice trailed off as she took in the sight before her, and Mars felt as if her heart had frozen in her chest as she took in her maybe-girlfriend. ( _Stop lying to yourself, there’s no ‘maybe’ about it_ , a distant part of her mind snarked.)

The shape was the same, both body and face, her hair styled as it was when she left the shrine. But the hair’s fiery red of the past year had reverted to the raven-dark before Trigon, her alabaster skin to its previous soft gray. And there were two white nubs high on her forehead above her eyes that looked suspiciously like horns just beginning to grow.

Mars’s hands clenched into tight fists, a growl forcing itself up her throat. She began to stalk forward as her frozen heart exploded with white-hot anger.

Raven’s new-gray tone paled and she stepped back with an odd clatter before she lost her balance and fell backward, arms pinwheeling. Before Starfire had a chance to react Mars darted forward to catch Raven only to be pulled down as well in a tangle of limbs. Raven frantically tried to get disentangled, only for Mars to pull her into a hug as they sat up. Mars murmured, “I’m not angry at you.” She glanced along Raven’s shapely legs, and fresh anger stabbed through her when she saw black cloven hooves instead of feet in low boots. “How _dare_ your grandmother do this to you!”

Raven shivered in Mars’s arms, but shook her head as the arms around her tightened. “I’m sure she had a good reason.”

But she’s the — !”

Raven laid a finger on Mars’s lips. “It’s not just that she loves me, Mama Urd was there the whole time and as angry as I’ve ever felt her when I left. Grandmother only got her back five years ago, she won’t risk losing her again — especially since she put her in the best position from which to mount a coup. No, whatever reason Grandmother had, she thinks it’ll be good enough to ... well, not make Mama Urd _happy_ , but at least accepting.”

A soft cough caught their attention, and the pair looked up and blushed furiously at the sight of the smiles, grins, smirks, and raised eyebrows of everyone around them. Mars promptly let go of Raven and scrambled to her feet while Raven floated up straight. The demon said, “As you might have noticed, I’m having a little trouble walking at the moment. Now let’s get back to the shrine so I can tell you what I learned, we may not have much time.”

Pluto thumped the butt of her staff on the deck to get everyone’s attention. “Actually, we should have the briefing now, _before_ we return. Unless you want us all to roof-hop or fly back?”

“What?” “No! Why?” “What’s the problem?”

Pluto held up her hands to stem the flood of questions. “Raven, you’re a full demon now? Not just half?”

“Yes, I ... oh, crap!”

Raven paled again, and so did Mars as she remembered the nausea Raven had suffered the last time she’d traveled by Senshi teleport. Now that she was a full demon ... “Right, briefing here, _then_ we return to the shrine. Maybe you can use your own soul-jump, whatever you call it?”

/\

The room was crowded, what with the eight Senshi kneeling almost in a row like so many school children with Pluto’s gaudy staff on the floor in front of her, Ku Lon perched on her staff, Cyborg sitting cross-legged beside Terra lying against the green panda that was Beast Boy (a sight that had both Raven and Mars shuddering slightly at memories of another panda), Robin leaning against a wall and Starfire hovering up by the ceiling. But Raven had been assured by Skuld, that _that_ room, at least, was as secure from outside surveillance as the magi-tech-savvy Norn of the Future could make it, so they would all have to make do.

And Raven, of course, was floating upright by the window looking over the rest like a teacher giving a lesson. Once everyone had settled, Robin ready to act as interpreter for his teammates that didn’t know Japanese, Raven started.

“First, I got the names we’re looking for, Tomoe Souichi, his wife Keiko, and their daughter Hotaru. And yes, Mars, it’s the Kunos — they took on new identities as a married couple and had a daughter together. And Tatewaki is repeatedly raping his daughter to power the summoning ritual. Whatever sense of honor Tatewaki might have had is long gone.”

Raven had to fight not to flinch at the angry hatred that had blazed up in the reborn Akane, even more white-hot than when she’d seen Raven’s new appearance. And she wasn’t the only one — even if not as intense that same anger blazed from _everyone_ , even Moon, and Raven’s vision slowly darkened red as the burning anger deep in her soul yowling and clawing to get out rose to meet their own hunger. She felt her hands curl into claws and begin to shake — and a suddenly calm Mars rose to her feet and stepped around behind her to pull her back against her girlfriend, arms wrapping underneath Raven’s breasts.

“Easy,” Mars whispered, and Raven shivered for an entirely different reason at the warm breath on her ear. “Easy, we’ll see justice done and Hotaru rescued.”

“Yessss,” Raven hissed ... but the red fog over her eyes faded as the world returned to its normal shades. She shivered again when Mars shifted her arms up slightly to brush the undersides of her breasts and blushed when Mars giggled. She glared at the rest of the room’s occupants and the amusement they were radiating, and cleared her throat. That amusement abruptly died when she continued.

“So, Kodachi thinks they’re performing a ritual to grant them the power to get revenge on the Amazons for Ranma’s death ... Chinese Amazons, not Wonder Woman’s people,” she added at the Titans’ confused looks. “Tatewaki believes the same except that the ‘Ranma’ he’s seeking to avenge was my — Ranma’s — girl-form, but knows he’s also summoning a powerful demon. What they _don’t_ know is that the ritual ends with them both dead and Tatewaki, at least, damned. And Hotaru becomes the summoned demon’s plaything, for however long she survives.”

She paused and took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment as she fought to lock her anger down even more. The next bit of news would be meaningless to half of her audience, but ...

“Second is who the demon is ... or rather, who the _god_ is — Moloch.”

At that name Mars gasped, her arms around Raven tightening _hard_. Pluto paled and she swayed slightly where she knelt. Robin’s eyes widened. “Oh, _shit!_ ” The rest of the Titans turned to stare at their leader, startled at the obscenity from _Robin_ , and paled at his grim expression. “Moloch was the bull-headed god of Canaan whose preferred sacrifice was children offered up by their parents to be burned alive — the younger the better.”

“Yes, _that_ Moloch,” Raven growled. (Though this time it was easier to keep her anger locked down — the initial hammer from the three had been shock rather than greater anger for her own to resonate with.) She was actually a little surprised that Robin recognized the name, but supposed he’d researched the ancient demons and gods as a matter of course after he’d learned of her half-demonic nature.

After several steadying breaths, she repeated in Japanese what Robin had said, then continued, “After the Israelites invaded and eventually killed all his worshipers, he crossed Hild and was forced to join the ranks of Niflheim’s demons. He isn’t the only ancient god that happened to, but he never made his peace with the restrictions that placed on him. This ritual — the one all of you interrupted when you were living in Britain —” She nodded at the Senshi. “— was his attempt to break out. Because the ritual doesn’t just summon him, it makes him a native of Earth. And _that_ means that not only can’t he be exorcised, but as a native there are limits to how obviously Hild and Kami-sama can move against him. Of course, as powerful as mortals have become in this new Age of Heroes that wouldn’t matter, except for the _third_ thing I learned ... Hotaru’s identity.” She paused again, bracing herself even more — this was going to be the worst emotional quake of all. “She’s Psykhe reborn.”

For a long, singing moment everyone in the room just stared at her — the Titans again in honest confusion (even Robin this time), but the Senshi blankly ... as if Raven’s words had been so much meaningless sounds. Raven hastily babbled on, “After her death from the injuries she suffered in your last bull dance she’s been tied to the same rebirth cycle as the rest of you circling you all as spouses, friends, siblings, children, but since she wasn’t with you when you assaulted the portal Pandora opened no one could recognize her reborn soul and so she couldn’t remember but she’s tied to the portal the same as you are and if the ritual succeeds the portal will break open and a wave of demons will try to conquer Japan or at least Tokyo and create a piece of Hell on Earth and —”

The dam broke: Mars’s arms tightened around Raven’s stomach like a vice, the rest of the Senshi shot to their feet with a roar, their shock and anger rolling over Raven in a single massive wave — and Raven’s own frayed control over the anger that had possessed her when she learned of Moloch’s scheming, that had been straining against its restraint during the entire briefing, finally snapped.

The newly born demon threw back her head (just missing smashing Mars’s nose flat), spread her arms wide as her eyes flashed red, and _howled_. Her midnight-black aura sprang into life around her like a radiating bonfire, throwing Mars back through the wall and window behind them, across the deck and onto the lawn in a shower of splinters and glass shards.

Everyone else in the room dove out of the way as coruscating black ribbons flashed from their teammate to hammer out through the thin walls and into ceiling and floor, carving trenches in fresh showers of splinters, glass added to the mix from the exploding lights. More splinters exploded out as Terra pulled rock up through the ground beneath the temple and floor above it to form a low wall across the length of the room, and those Titans and Senshi on the wrong side of the wall dove over it and huddled down out of the line of fire.

All except Pluto — she’d snatched up her staff and actually parried several undulating ribbons, and now she raised it high. The ribbons of destroying power snapped from the walls, floor and ceiling to the large garnet centered in the silver valentine heart atop it to form a massive pulsating ball of energy so black it seemed a light-sucking void. Beginning to sweat, Pluto gritted out, “Whatever anyone’s going to do, now’s the time to do it.”

Moon jumped over the wall just as Mars stumbled back in through the hole in the wall she’d made on her way out, while Starfire flew up in an arc. Mars and Starfire forced themselves against the black heatless flames that surrounded Raven, but it was as if they were trying to walk or fly into a hurricane wind, and they just couldn’t cross the last few feet. Moon held up her hands in front of her chest and a silvery crystalline flower appeared, floating above her palms. It began to glow, its ever-intensifying light _slowly_ shrinking the flickering black flames.

Raven herself was completely unaware of the devastation she’d unleashed and the attempts of her friends to reach her. She was lost in a vortex of anger and hatred, spinning and tumbling as red and black clawed at her, ripping into her being. Her friends started back as the black flames around her started to be shot through with red. Another pair of red ovals appeared between her eyes and her horn buds and began to grow —

And the vortex abruptly shattered before a wave of pure light that swept away the fragments as it bathed Raven in calm, gentle, comforting, and _very_ familiar love. The light faded into the waking world, and she found herself circled by a pair of tanned arms pulling her close, blond hair framing her face as Mama Mara gently kissed her on the forehead.

A moment later Mars’s arms hesitantly encircled her from behind, her girlfriend’s face pressed against her hair — there was nothing calm about _her_ love, it was tempestuous, angry, shot through by fading panic. Mars murmured, “Don’t you _ever_ scare me like that again!”

Raven twist so that she could pull both mother and girlfriend into a mutual embrace. “I didn’t mean to do it this time, what happened? Why did I — ?”

“ ‘What happened’ is that your nature broke through thanks to the empathic assault you were under,” Mara replied. “You can’t repress it now that you’ve become fully demonic, only ... ah, _request_ that it be patient, assure it that its time will come and unleash it on your enemies when it does. Believe me, I _know_.”

“If anyone would know, it’s you,” Raven agreed, before reluctantly breaking up the group hug and looking around. “Wow, I really did a number on this room. You’re going to have to give me some pointers later. Mama Mara, what are you _doing_ here?”

“Urd gave me a call to let me know what happened and make sure I wouldn’t be caught up in the battle that’s about to start. She suggested I drop in to make sure you’re all right.”

“A good thing she did.” Raven looked around the room again, at all the damage she’d caused and that Terra had added to when she protected everyone — shattered windows, wandering snakes of gouges in walls, floor and ceiling, sparking wires and lights that just weren’t there anymore, the wall of rock thrusting through the floor for the whole length of the room.... _Auntie Bell is going to be_ pissed _at me, and I’ll deserve it — and when_ she _loses her temper, primal deities hunt for hidey holes they can pull in after them! I’m going to have to come up with something spectacular to make up my loss of —_

Her train of thought derailed as the _rest_ of what Mara had said caught up with her, and her attention snapped back to the Norn of the Past. “Did you say Mama Urd said the battle’s _about to start?_ ”

“I was wondering if you’d catch that. Yes, she did.”

Mara’s calm words didn’t hide her spike of worry, not from her daughter, and she stepped close to pull her mother into a hug. “I’m sure Mama Urd’ll be fine — she’s tough, and she has a small army to back her up.” _And so does Mama Lind and they’re going to be fighting each other, and what if any of Mama Urd’s people still resent her — ?_ Raven pushed aside the thought, it wasn’t like she could do anything about either. Instead she pasted on a smile. “Hey, at least she’s still keeping secrets from Hild and going behind her back, like any good subordinate.”

Mara laughed softly. “Not in this case, your grandmother was looking over her shoulder during the call.”

“She was?” Raven asked, confused. _What is grandmother_ up _to?_ After a moment Raven pushed that thought aside as well, for later. “We have to go, now.”

“I know.” It was Mara’s turn to paste on a brave smile, though Raven could feel her worry. “Be careful.”

“I will.” Raven turned to the rest to find everyone but Mars and Moon staring at her wide-eyed, except for Venus and Robin — _they_ were more thoughtful about it.

Finally, team leader and battlefield commander exchanged glances and Robin repeated, “ ‘Cannot be repressed, only directed’?”

“Yes,” Mara agreed.

Moon looked over at them quizzically, then her eyes widened again. “Ooooh!” Turning back to Raven, she said, “Of course, you’re coming! After all you’ve done ... all you’ve _paid_ ... we can’t leave you behind. Just ...” She smiled weakly. “Remember what I said about being angry at the right people ... _please_ don’t prove me wrong?”


	18. A Sacrifice of Innocence

With a flash of light, the Senshi and their Titans allies appeared in the backyard of the Hino home — and without a sound, Raven dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.

Mars was next to her girlfriend and twisted to catch her, the two collapsing for a soft landing. Moon and Mercury instantly dropped down beside the pair, Mercury summoning the same crystal she had used when they had first met Raven. The blue-haired Senshi ran the Crystal from the tips of Raven’s hooves along her body to her horn-budded (and too pale) forehead as the rest gathered around, frowning as the Crystal’s glow constantly flickered between green and red. “That teleport really hammered her, we won’t be doing _that_ again. Moon?”

“Right!” Moon bent over the tangled pair, her hands glowing.

“No cleansing!” Mars hastily said. _Why_ did Raven have to be as stubborn as Ranma? She could have made multiple jumps of her own to return, but no! She insisted on staying with the group, and now ...

“No cleansing,” Moon agreed, smiling reassuringly as she laid a glowing hand on Raven’s forehead and the other between her breasts. The glow spread from those hands, flowing over the dark blue of her costume and satiny gray of skin. The strength of the glow brightened, until the others shielded their eyes and Mars had to squint. (She was _not_ taking her arms from around her girlfriend’s waist.) The strength of the glow was scaring her, the bright it got the more effort Moon was putting into it —

Then the glow vanished and Mercury hastily ran her Crystal along Raven’s body again. Mars sighed with relief as this time there were only a few flickers of red, the same as the first time Mercury had scanned her on the day they’d first met.

 _Of course, that time Raven was out for hours and woke up with a pounding headache_. This time Mars’ sigh had nothing to do with relief — when her girlfriend woke up she was going to be _very_ unhappy that she’d missed the final act. ( _Girlfriend! sqeeeee_ ) She shifted so she could slide her arms behind Raven’s knees and back and rose to her feet with her girlfriend in her arms. “Let me get her put to bed, and we —”

A massive flash of light threw their shadows across her home’s back wall. She whirled even as a thunderclap seemed to shake the ground, staggered as Raven’s weight threw her off-balance only to have Terra and Jupiter catch her arms. “Thank y —” Mars started to say, but broke off as her jaw dropped.

From some point lost among the buildings miles away a ribbon of black light undulated up into the sky, where it spiraled into a point of _nothing_ so intense — so _wrong_ — that just looking at it made the world around her seem to shift and _stretch_. She yanked her eyes away and looked around at the others, still staring slack-jawed at the light show.

Pluto sighed, her shoulder slumping. “That is the lock failing on the portal we’ve been haunting for three thousand years. We’re too late.”

“That’s coming from Chibi-Moon’s school, isn’t it?” Venus whispered.

A suddenly pale Moon jerkily nodded.

“Right,” Venus spoke up more loudly, shaking off her shock. “Robin —”

The team leader of the Titans was already talking into a communicator Mars recognized was from the Justice League. “— _everyone!_ No, wait, everyone that doesn’t have a vulnerability to magic. Focus the Tower’s scanners on a point ... about two miles south of my current position. There’ll ...”

“Good.” Venus left Robin to calling for their back-up. “Mars, get Raven comfortable and catch up with us.”

Mars nodded and ran for the house as fast as she could with Raven in her arms. Behind her, she heard, “Robin, you done? Good. Everyone gather around....”

/oOo\

_Earlier:_

Chibi-Usa was bored again — bored and worried, a combination she was _not_ enjoying. And watching the clouds from her classroom seat by the window wasn’t helping at all/ The conversation at breakfast kept going through her mind, what could she do to help her friend? She’d already invited her over to her home after their after-school school club meetings and Hotaru had been happy to accept, overjoyed even. But getting her talking? How? And convince her to see Child Services _after_ she was ... was raped again? There shouldn’t _be_ another rape!

She jerked when the pencil in her hand snapped. So did Kasai Echiko beside her. Her sorta-friend leaned over and whispered, “Pay attention, or Yosida-sensei will have you out in the hall holding buckets again.”

“Right,” Chibi-Usa whispered back, and turned her attention back to their teacher at the whiteboard.

She tried, really she did, but this class was Math, and math that she’d learned years earlier at home. Her attention again wandered, her eyes drifting toward the window and its clouds, when movement lower down caught her attention — was that Hotaru? It was! Maybe ... Chibi-Usa _thought_ the tiny figure walking toward the school’s front gate beside an adult woman with an odd, off-centered ponytail was Hotaru, but what was she doing leaving school?

Then a male figure stepped through the front gates. The pair slammed to a halt and the woman pushed Hotaru behind her.

 

/\

As she and Hotaru walked through the school doors toward the front gates, Kodachi could feel the sweat beading no her face, soaking her clothes—she was going to have a _quite_ unlady-like stench before they even reached the airport for the flight to the United States.

But she was _doing_ it! She’d gotten the cash, purchased the tickets under her old identity, collected Hotaru, and they were on their way! For the first time in years, she felt like herself — she’d even tied her hair up in the style that she’d made uniquely hers and let out the laugh that she’d used to use to announce her presence to the peasants before helping the driver carry her and Hotaru’s bags to the taxi.

Beside her, Hotaru broke into a jog, her stuffed Pikachu bouncing out of the bag in her arms, and she scrambled to catch it to her in a hug before catching up with her mother. She hesitantly asked, “Mom, where are we going?”

“We’re going on a plane ride to the United States, won’t that be fun?”

“To ... to the United States?” Her too-pale daughter turned even more pale. “When will we be coming back?”

“We aren’t.”

“Did father get a new job?”

Kodachi fought back a wince at the formal label, remembering when Hotaru had used to call him ‘daddy’. _How were we ever so insane that we’d_ do _this to her?_ “No, Ho-chan,” she softly replied, “your father won’t be coming with us.” A few steps later she realized Hotaru was no longer by her side. She stopped and turned around, to find her daughter stopped those few steps behind, staring up at her.

“Really?”

“Really. You’ll never have to see him again.”

Hotaru stared at her for a few moments more, her hug around her Pikachu tightening. “You found out.” Then she broke into a brilliant smile and she ran over and took her mother’s hand. “Let’s go!”

Laughing softly, Kodachi turned back toward the front gates. Between one hand holding hers and the other clutching her Pikachu, her daughter seemed to have regressed a few years ... but Kodachi didn’t mind at all.

The pair was ten feet away from the gates when a Tatewaki still dressed in his salaryman work clothes stepped through them.

/\

Hotaru had been having the best day that she could remember — even better than the day she met Chibi-Usa at the park. Having a friend was wonderful, but Mom still loved her! She loved her and she’d discovered what father had been doing and they were leaving and Hotaru would never have to feel her father’s weight pressing down on her, _piercing_ her ever again! She felt like she was walking on air, as if she could let go of her mother’s warm hand and soar up to the clouds the airplane that would take them away would soon be passing through.

And then her father stepped through the school’s front gate, the sight of him like the shock of water some school bullies had once drenched her with. Hotaru stepped back.

“Husband, what are you doing here?” her mother demanded, shifting in front of her. “I thought you were going to be late coming home from work today ... again.”

“Oh, I was, but I saw an ... _interesting_ charge on our bank account.” He stepped forward, Kodachi bumping into Hotaru when she stepped back. She let go of Hotaru’s hand, and Hotaru noticed her mother’s now-empty hand slip into her purse out of the corner of her eye as she stared at her father around her mother’s side. “And why would you be taking a flight to the United States?”

Hotaru was beginning to shake ... something dark and dangerous like she’d never felt before was rising inside her. She abruptly stepped around her mother. “Mom found out about your ... the morning ... visits ...” Her shaking now had nothing to do with anger, but she fought down her fear and rallied. “We’re leaving!”

“Really.” Her father stepped to the side to lean a shoulder against a tree, arms crossed. He lifted an eyebrow. “Your mother ‘found out’ about my normal visits? That would be difficult, seeing how she knew all along.”

Hotaru’s fear vanish, overwhelmed by the cold that swept through her. She shook her head as her arms tightened around Pikachu. “No. She couldn’t ... she wouldn’t have —”

“Of course she could. It was what you were _born_ for, for revenge.” He smirked. “Why else would I marry my lunatic of a sister?”

Hotaru slowly turned. “Mom ... ?”

But her mother was pale, sweat beading on her forehead, her hands making odd gestures in the air as her mouth opened and closed. It was true — all of it.

Hotaru stumbled backward as that dark and dangerous _something_ she’d felt earlier exploded through her, taking her breath away, her vision failing.

And the stuffed Pikachu wriggled in her arms, the unexpected sensation catching her so much by surprise that she instinctively let go. It dropped to the pavement and bounced up as it started to spark. “Chuuu ...” The sparking slowly increased, showering out all around it like a fountain firework. “Chuuu!”

Her mother was backing up, eyes wide ... and without warning a massive lightning bolt lashed out from the stuffed toy, slamming into her with a blinding flash of light, a massive thunderclap hammering into Hotaru’s ears. She blinked furiously, rubbed at her eyes, struggling to clear her vision. Her ears were ringing....

On the ground where her mother had stood on charred grass lay a smoking husk, blackened ash except for the red lines where skin had split.

“Mama?” Hotaru stumbled over to drop to her knees beside the corpse. “Mama?”

“Your anger killed her. _You_ killed her,” her father pronounced as he strode toward her. “And just when she’d shown she loved you more than revenge by trying to take you away from me ... such a shame.”

_“Mama!”_

That dark and dangerous _something_ she’d used to kill her mother rose again, and she slowly rose to her feet, closed her eyes, and called it down upon herself. With a massive roar the world exploded into pure white.

/\

Chibi-Usa didn’t realize that she’d gotten out of her chair until Echiko stepped up to the window next to her to look out. “Usa-chan, what’s wrong?”

A frowning Yosida-sensei had broken off his lesson, and stepped over to the window as well, looking out to see what had caught Chibi-Usa’s attention.

“I don’t know,” Chibi-Usa absentmindedly replied to her friend, her attention focused on the family drama taking place down by the school’s front gate, her hands tightening into fists. The man had to be Hotaru’s father — and rapist. She was _so_ tempted to summon her henshin rod and teach that monster a lesson in _pain_ he’d never forget —

The doll bounced out of Hotaru’s arms, hit the ground, bounced ... A thunderclap shook the windows, and Chibi-Usa stumbled back, hands over flash-blinded eyes. She had to _see!_ She stepped back to the windows as she blinked her eyes free of dazzle-tears. This time she was just in time to get in front of the rest of the class as the children rushed to the window to see what was happening.

Hotaru was kneeling on the lawn next to a smoking something ... Chibi-Usa couldn’t see her mother anywhere. Her friend was rising to her feet —

“Everybody down! Now!” Chibi-Usa shouted as she sensed the demonic energies building below. She grabbed Echiko’s arm and yanked her down below the window with her. Some of the others followed her order, others turned to look down at her.

Another flash of light lit up the windows, then a split-second later they exploded inward, the massive pressure wave accompanying the flash sending shards of glass spraying across the room.

Screams filled the air, and not just her classroom, Chibi-Usa realized as she rose to her feet and stared in horror at the red-splashed desks and floor. Her henshin rod was in her hand with but a thought, her own crystal that crowned it glowing. She began to lift it ... _No! I_ can’t _heal everyone here — I’d be lucky to be strong enough to heal a handful before I collapse. And the privacy spell protecting our identities is strong, but it has limits. I doubt even it can cover me transforming into Chibi-Moon right in front of everyone._

Still-screaming gore-spattered students began scrambling for the door to the hallway, and Chibi-Usa grabbed Echiko’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “Come on, before it happens again!”

The pair began to run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a good reason I dropped this chapter for the holidays and focused on my Star Wars story, there was no way I was posting _this_ around Christmas! Yes, the final sacrifice of the Kuno/Tomoes' ritual wasn't pain or death, even of innocents, but innocence itself. Just the kind of sacrifice Moloch lives for.


	19. Breakout!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a good long note planned out, but the truth is I simply feel too awful to bother. So on with the show!

_Kuno_ Tatewaki (and didn’t it feel good to discard the false identity he’d had to hide under for so long) pushed himself to his feet from where the pressure wave had picked him up and tossed him. He was covered in grass stains, of course, from sliding and rolling across the school’s lawn, but per his ‘patron’s’ suggestion he had positioned himself carefully and so hadn’t hit tree, wall or gate and so had come through unharmed.

Screams from the school briefly caught his attention and he glanced over at the buildings — it’s windows now empty of glass — shrugged, and turned to stride toward his daughter lying on the lawn next to his sister’s corpse. If everything had gone right ...

He stumbled to a stop as a dark glow surrounded Hotaru. An equally dark thread stretched upward from her body, undulating like a snake, growing thicker along its entire length as it rose. He stared as its ascent sped up until, high above, it began to circle ... no, _spiral_ to a point of eye-hurting blackness. Was this how his ‘patron’ would arrive to inflict his long-awaited vengeance on the Amazons?

As he stared upward, he felt a growing sense of unease ... of _something_ sifting through his body, as if ants were crawling along beneath his skin. He grimaced, his eyes falling away from the maybe-portal, focusing on his daughter. Perhaps it was an effect of the energies pouring out of her up into the sky?

He started to back up, only to stumble and fall backward as pain ripped through him, as if fiery acid was devouring him from the inside. Bones creaked and his head felt as if it was about to explode even as two spots of blinding pain erupted, one on each side of his head. He rolled to his knees, grabbed at his temples and tried to shriek — just as his jawbone snapped, his mouth dropping open, teeth and blood spilling to the ground. He collapsed as his leg bones shattered, writhing, still clutching his head even as his arm bones creaked and split, then hissed like a tea kettle as horn spikes thrusting from his temples pinned his hands to his head. Red seeped through his cloths as thin slits in his skin ran along arms, legs, chest and back ... and blood and gore exploded over the lawn in all directions as Moloch rose to his full seven-foot height.

The bull-headed former god, former demon, and now an earth spirit shook his head, flinging fresh blood from his horns to spatter the grass, and took stock of himself. He felt ... weak — not restrained, stifled, as he would have felt wearing the limiters his power as one of Hild’s more powerful subordinate demons required when visiting the mortal realm. But then he’d expected that, freeing himself of his ties to Niflheim and Hild’s domination came at a price beyond vengeance on the Chinese Amazons that he had been willing to pay two thousand years ago with his first attempt and was willing to pay now. So were all that had chosen to join him. And for that ... he looked up and growled in satisfaction at the undulating thread reaching from Hotaru to the black spiral vanished, leaving it hanging unsupported in the air as flashes of dark light began to sparkle along its length. If all was going according to plan —

_Yes!_

The lips of his bull-head’s muzzle pulled back to bare fangs as the first of the Furies poured through the portal into the open air above Juuban, the platinum blonde figure of Hild’s daughter leading them. All was going to plan ... here, at least, it would be up to his fellow conspirators to deal with Hild. He had a kingdom of his own to conquer on Earth.

“What was _that?_ ” Moloch turned to find his pawn standing beside him, staring around at the blood and viscera spread out around them. “Pain is a friend to a true samurai,” Tatewaki continued, “but I have never felt it’s like before. You did not warn me that the ritual demanded an additional sacrifice.”

Moloch bared his fangs in a savage grin, but said nothing. There was no point.

Tatewaki’s anger, never far from the surface, rose at Moloch’s silence and he shouted, “We have a bargain! Speak!”

Rather than respond, Moloch looked past him. Tatewaki turned to follow his gaze, and paled at the sight of the shadows rising from the ground behind him. Normally the Endless that currently took the form of a perky Goth girl would have come to see the elder Kuno sibling on his way, as she undoubtedly had for his sister, but thanks to his oath he was a special case. This time the Collectors had taken forms of smoky-black shifting shapes with vague arms and heads and burning embers for eyes, and Tatewaki had time for a single fearful scream before they swarmed him, pulling the struggling damned soul down into the ground and out of sight.

Moloch shrugged and returned his attention to the portal.

/\

High above the Nekomi another portal opened—this one pure white, so bright that the stunned spectators below couldn’t look at it for more than a split second before turning away and rubbing at dazzled eyes. So only a handful saw the first beings sweep out of the portal, male and female figures on ... brooms? The figures were too distant for them to easily distinguish the color of the purple hair of the newcomers’ leader, and they didn’t have much time to examine them as the others formed a ‘V’ with their leader at the point before streaking off toward Juuban.

/oOo\

Moloch frowned as he watched the Furies flying out of the portal. What were they doing? He didn’t expect them to actually attack anyone, not as ... well, not _soft_ , none of Niflheim’s denizens made the mistake of thinking that of the Furies more than once ... blinkered, he supposed. No, they had none of the Asgardian fools’ belief in mercy, but were fanatical about Justice. The most anyone had expected Hild to order was for them to provide a distraction and buff up the numbers. And deal with the Valkyrie when they joined the dance, of course. The Valkyrie hadn’t arrived yet, so they _should_ have been strafing buildings, shooting up the landscape, and in the process taking advantage of their orders to chase the mortal sheep far enough away that they’d avoid becoming _his_ sheep. Instead, they were spreading out, staying high, and ... were they forming a half-circle?

A flash of light distracted him, pulling his attention to the circle of figures that had appeared on the lawn a few yards away — the Sailor Senshi, and the Titans. _This_ at least was going as expected.... Though there was a tiny, shriveled up old crone balancing on a staff taller than she was, with more Life burning inside her than a single mortal should have ... a _lot_ more.

The newcomers began to spread out, the Senshi glancing over at the small body now spattered with her father’s blood and gore lying next to the larger charred, still-smoking corpse and then back at him. He bared his fangs again, luxuriating under the weight of their hate, then looked up again and frowned. He was happy to see the first of those that had chosen to follow him coming through the portal, sailing out over the city or falling toward the ground, whichever their preferred human or sometimes wildly inhuman forms allowed, but they were coming through sooner than he had expected and the number of Furies seemed ... thin.

 _Later, you have some heroes to deal with_. He refocused on the Senshi and Titans. By now, he thought, they were just about in position, forming a half-circle around him with Starfire in flight, hands and eyes glowing green, Terra floating beside her on a rock platform torn from the bedrock beneath the school lawn. Though oddly enough, three of the Senshi were hanging back — and he didn’t remember any Senshi with emerald- or sea-green hair, or short platinum blond. _I wonder where they came from?_

Just as the heroes were tensing to attack Moloch waved widely. “Should you really be wasting time on me? My new minions are here and more arriving, eager to slake lusts that they haven’t been able to satisfy at home. And whatever Hild’s granddaughter may have told you, her mother’s Valkyrie won’t be able to stop them ... they’ll have her _other_ mother’s Furies to deal with.”

“We can cut off the head of the snake first,” Moon snarled, and Moloch bellowed his amusement.

“What, no noble speech for me about justice and redemption? Go, seek to deal with my minions as the Valkyrie and Furies joust above you. I will still be here when you are done. My word on it, I will not seek victims among those around us —” He waved at the building visible over the wall surrounding the school. “— until after we have settled our differences. Besides, shouldn’t you be helping the children in the school? It used to have windows.”

Moon glanced toward the school, her face going white as she realized what had happened. Instantly she took off at a run toward the building. A moment later Starfire swooped down to grab her under her arms and pick her up into the air, flying for the front entrance. The three new Senshi raced to follow them.

The rest hesitated. Then Robin nodded. “Deal.” He strode over to join Cyborg. “Hild’s minions cannot break a promise. Terra, Cyborg and I need a ride.” He looked over at the crone and the other Senshi. “Are you coming?”

Venus gazed at the school for a long moment, then swept her gaze across the buildings around the school grounds, looked up at the demons still falling from the portal. “Yes.”

“Then cluster together.”

Venus, Mercury and Jupiter hastily clumped together and two massive clumps of ground rose, one underneath the three and the other underneath Cyborg and Robin. The crone hesitated for a long moment, then in a move whose predatory smoothness had Moloch blinking bounded up onto the turf-and-earth-covered rocky platform that supported the Senshi. The two platforms sailed away over the school ground wall.

 _Good, rush off like good little heroes and die_. Credulous heroes, at that ... they’d missed the fact that he was no longer a demon and so no longer bound to honor his contracts, other than the one with the now-deceased Kunos. Not that it mattered, the heroes wouldn’t be back. There was no way they’d be able to deal with —

With an earthshaking roar a small jet flew past, low overheard, its guns spitting fire and in its wake his winged minions were tumbling out of the sky. That was the Batman’s plane, what was _he_ doing in Japan!? And why was he using deadly force, Batman didn’t _do_ that!

Moloch’s minions weren’t fools, though, and they scattered and dropped low. They’d get down among the buildings where the jet couldn’t go without losing maneuverability and sight lines, and endangering people in the buildings if the vigilante kept using his jet’s guns. From there they could continue —

 _Two more_ figures flew into sight, without the use of wings or a vehicle — one male, one female, dressed all in black including masks that covered their entire heads. These two were flying much slower, but they’d be much more maneuverable ... and red beams flashed from their eyes, down out of the bull-god’s sight. Faint screams came from that direction, and he didn't think they were from mortal throats. Then the two turned in his direction — not focused on him, still firing down — and he recognized the diamond-like shape of the symbol on their chests. They were too far away for him to see the stylized ‘S’ inside those diamonds, but there was no doubt — Superman and Supergirl had joined the fight. _Good, with their vulnerability to magic, they’ll be easy meat. That’ll go a long way to breaking the resist_ —

The first return fire leaped up toward the pair, glowing-bright brown lightning. It forked, hammered into both figures, _splashed_ ... and did absolutely nothing that Moloch could see at a distance. _Wonderful. They may be vulnerable to magic, but their_ costumes _apparently aren’t_. And if Batman, Superman and Supergirl were here, the rest of the Justice League wouldn’t be far behind. Most of that immense gathering of heroes would be easy meat for the demons that had thrown their lot in with him, even with the loss of power that their own transformations to earth spirits entailed, but not all — certainly Wonder Woman would be a fearsome foe. Not that he hadn’t expected to fight them eventually, but not so _fast_. He’d expected to be able to seize ground, deal with the local heroes, raise boundary wards, have a subject mortal population held hostage, all before the rest of Earth’s heroes could mobilize. He felt the sinking in his gut signaling a plan going off the rails.

Then the Valkyrie came sweeping in on their battle brooms, their purple-haired leader at the point of the ‘V’, and that sinking sensation turned into free fall as, instead of attacking the Furies, they spread out and linked up to complete the circle in the sky. Then _all_ of them, Furies and Valkyries alike, began dive bombing unseen targets on the ground, attacking any of his fliers that came too close — a perimeter that they were not allowing his minions to pass, boxing them in for the mortals to deal with. He doubted that perimeter would be able to stop _all_ of his minions, perhaps not even most, but there was no way those that did get through would be enough to set up the wards. And even if they did, what was the point? The most powerful of the mortal defenders were already on the scene, raising the wards would just trap them inside with his minions, exactly where they wanted to be.

He was going to lose.

 _At least I’m here on Earth — if things are going so spectacularly wrong for me they must be even worse for the others. I and however many of my minions survive at least have an entire planet to hide in while we regroup_. He glanced up. Yes, his minions were still pouring through the portal. The Valkyrie and Furies guarding the perimeter would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers if nothing else, and while many of his minions had chosen inhuman shapes and lacked the skill for prolonged shapeshifting they’d need to hide among the herds of mortals, most did or had chosen mortal forms. Yes, his dream of a mortal realm was still possible, simply delayed by the time it would take to gather the survivors and find an out of the way place he could conquer without notice to plant the seed his new realm could grow from — perhaps the very village his oath required him to annihilate. But for that, he needed to make his own exit.

He was just turning toward the school gates when a soft groan caught his attention. He turned and looked down at the child whose sacrifice had not only fueled his escape but broken open the portal for his minions, stunned to not only find her alive but stirring! He stared for a long moment, stunned by the sacrifice’s survival, then grinned savagely. He wasn’t the only one that had assumed Hotaru was dead, so had the Senshi and Titans ... and so they’d left her with him. _I think I’ll leave a little ... gift ... behind before I leave, to show my appreciation for their efforts opposing me_. He flexed one hand, his grin growing wider as red glowing claws sprang from his fingertips. He wouldn’t have time to do a _proper_ job of it, but her death would be brutal enough to get the message across. He reached down —

His claws skittered along a translucent dome that had sprung up over his victim. Red eyes framed by pink hair stared up at him through the faintly glowing magic. “You will not touch her!”


	20. Newcomers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter would have been up days ago if it hadn't been for a "new" fanfic at ff.net, _Taylor Varga_ by mp3.1415player. It's a Worm crossover with a _really_ obscure anime called _Luna Varga_ , and more lighthearted than most Worm fanfic (in part because Taylor is _way_ overpowered). A lot of fun, and since this is a reposting from Spacebattles, where it's the 17th most viewed story of all time and has almost a million words. mp3.1415player has been updating it almost daily at ff.net, but has annoying things like earning a living getting in the way....

A dark-haired young man gazed out the window as the passenger plane dropped toward the airstrip, trying to distract himself by watching the familiar city grow larger. It wasn’t working. During the long flight Chiba Mamoru had had school work and a good book to distract himself from the Senshi’s latest crisis, but he’d finished his book and with his laptop shut down for the landing his mind had resumed worrying about Usagi and the rest of the Senshi. And the worst of it was that he didn’t even know what the crisis _was!_ His girlfriend hadn't been willing to say over the phone or even send any details in an email, so all she’d been able to tell him was that there was an emergency in ‘the family’ and he was needed back as soon as he could book a flight.

Though he suspected that the presence of the Teen Titans in Japan had something to do with it, which probably meant things were even worse than Usagi had hinted — whatever had happened a year ago may have been centered on Jump City, but heroes had come under attack throughout the entire _world_.

His stomach abruptly lurched and the city below began to recede — they were rising! He looked around frantically through the window, ignoring the sudden buzz of conversation from the other passengers as he tried to see if there was anything to be seen below to explain it.

As he searched, the intercom came on. “ _This is the captain speaking. The airport is suffering an emergency and all flights are being diverted. We will be — no!_ ”

The plane lurched again, this time rocking from side to side, and with a hideous shriek of tearing metal the emergency door on the opposite side of the compartment tore away. Mamoru scrabbled at his seatbelt even as the roar of jet engines and rushing wind drowned out the passengers’ screams. Thanks to the high backs of the passenger seats he couldn’t _see!_ At least, he couldn’t see what had ripped away the door, the splash of arterial red that sprayed the upper wall and ceiling around the vanished door was clear enough.

Then the seatbelt came loose. Grabbing the top of the seat in front he leaped up onto his seat, crouching just enough to avoid hitting his head on the overhead storage. He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the rose that was always there then spun in place.

It wasn’t the most graceful of transformations ... he had to snatch his top hat out of the air with the hand not holding his cane when the overhead bin knocked it off ... but it did the job and Tuxedo Mask stepped into the central aisle even as more blood was spattered about by the winds stirred up by the open doorway, and pieces of a body — a woman’s from the long red hair on the nearly severed head — were thrown into the aisle and onto the people on the other side. It was followed by a green-carapaced praying mantis-like _thing_ , human-high and liberally besmeared with the blood and gore of its victims, two geodesic eyes glowing red, mandibles clacking at the screaming passengers as it shrieked like a train whistle.

“Hey, green-and-ugly!”

The shout might not have been up to his usual flowery language, but it did its job—when the demon turned toward Tuxedo Mask, the stem of a rose shot between those mandibles to pierce deep into its mouth. For a moment the demon choked as it tried to clear the sudden flowery obstruction, until the rose exploded, scattering ichor and bits of chitin across the seats around it.

The now-headless demon-mantis corpse collapsed, and Tuxedo Mask climbed over it and the male corpse of the demon’s first victim toward the empty doorway. The plane was descending again, rather more sharply — the pilots would know about the loss of cabin pressure and be headed for the airport regardless of what was happening — but ...

Holding tight to the doorframe with one hand, shielding his eyes from the fierce wind as best he could with the other, he stared out across the city rapidly approaching with the preternaturally sharp distance vision his white domino-like mask gave him. That was a _lot_ of flyers out there — insectoid, avian, reptilian, humanlike, nightmarish mixes of them all — swarming around some _very_ familiar heroes. The winged redhead wielding a mace had to be Hawkgirl (or Shayera, he thought she was calling herself these days); the raven-haired woman in a red, white and blue swimsuit using a demon bound by a golden rope to sweep the sky clean of its allies had to be Wonder Woman; so he guessed the two figures in black body suits firing red beams from their eyes must be Superman and Supergirl. And _that_ must mean ... yes, there was the black and white-costumed Dr. Light — Japan’s own contribution to the Justice League — on a strafing run through another pack of demons, beams of light flashing from her hands to pierce and cut. Demon bodies were raining down on the streets and buildings below.

Then a red-orange streak crossed Dr. Light’s path, a purple and orange figure firing bolts of green energy from eyes and hands — Starfire. She dove out of sight behind one of the taller business buildings, but only for a moment before she reappeared between the building and a neighbor, circling the head of _a massive green Tyrannosaurus Rex!_ Even at a distance, Tuxedo Mask imagined he could hear the screams of the ground-bound demons on the street the prehistoric beast was giving his attention to, now that his teammate was dealing with the flying demons that had been harassing him.

 _Right, Beast Boy_ , Tuxedo Mask thought faintly. What the jokester of the Titans could _do_ with that power, with a little more maturity ...

He yanked his skittering thoughts back into line, glanced up at the eye-searing, pulsating _black_ of the portal more demons were pouring out of. It looked like everyone he could see was dealing with the demons, he hoped they were giving the more magical- and supernatural-oriented members of the Justice League the cover they needed to deal with the source. And _he_ needed to find his team.

By this time the passenger plane had swept across the battle zone and was dropping rapidly, he was out of time. Taking a deep breath, he threw himself out into the open air, curling into a ball and falling _just_ enough that he missed being clipped by the plane’s tail. As soon as he dropped out of the jet’s turbulence he sent a mental command to his cape, and it snapped wide and stiff into its glide mode. Even in the middle of the unfolding catastrophe, he couldn’t stop a whoop of pure joy. He didn’t know why his own hero persona was so different from the Senshi, Mercury had given up trying to figure it out, but he _loved_ the ‘toys’ that came with it and none more than his cape’s glider mode. But he wasn’t here to play.

He glanced around, then caught an updraft, heat rising from the asphalt jungle below, then did a barrel roll ... he was still beyond what looked like the center of the action, no demons dangerously near. So ... he closed his eyes and reached inward through the spark at his center then outward through that spark for the corresponding spark of his Usako ... there! The mix of love, fear, determination and regret that his little bunny always brought to a fight — she _always_ wished that there as another way, that she could save everyone ... even those she fought. Down, of course, ahead and to his left. _Don’t ever change, Love_.

He opened his eyes, then banked and angled down slightly. He’d have to circle a bit to lose altitude without picking up too much speed and that would make him a juicy target, but he had as many roses like he’d used against the demon on the plane as he needed and his cane for any that got too close. Besides, it looked like the airborne demons had more than enough to keep them busy trying to evade or overwhelm their hunters, as they chose.

He should be fine.

/oOo\

The massive building shivered as yet another explosion ripped through it, and more fearful shrieks rose from the Daimakaicho’s office staff cowering under their desks. Ba’al’s stride didn’t hesitate as his grin grew even broader — an eagerly vicious smile that was disturbingly out of place on a face of such inhuman perfection — and the lightning flickering about his hands lashed out. Another desk exploded and the damned soul hiding there was thrown back into another desk, shrieking in pain as his body seemed to light up from the inside for a moment before exploding as well. Sparkling dust blew across the desks around before silently vanishing away, and the former god hid a sigh — it just wasn’t as satisfying as flaying the bones from a terrified mortal. Of course he didn’t have the time to do the job properly, Hild knew they were coming and would be activating her defenses; but even if he did have the time there would be no scent of roasting meat, no steam rising from the charred and flayed skin, no pleas for death from a mortal kept alive by Mawat’s will until Ba’al chose to release him ... just the discorporation of a soul made solid, to eventually reform and resume his duties.

Not that the lack of delight from dealing with mortals was keeping his companions from enjoying themselves — if his wife Anat and her handmaiden Athtart had been dealing with their preferred prey the bronze skin and dark hair of the two naked women would have been liberally smeared with blood. Throughout their rampage through the building the twin bronze-seeming swords each bore had cut down every soul that had come within reach. And Mawat was holding up a soul by the throat, lips leathery as a corpse left to desiccate in the desert pressed against hers, her colors fading as he sucked away her essence.

“Enough! We can play later, after we’ve dealt with Hild. She may be alone, and a weak-hearted romantic with no liver or taste for blood, but her defenses will be formidable and she will be strengthening them with all the power desperation can provide.”

Chastened, his wife and her handmaiden ceased their rampage and rejoined him. Mawat took a few seconds longer, until his victim collapsed into sparkling dust that vanished even as it fell, but then hastened to rejoin them.

Ba’al turned to the wave of minions that had been following in the former gods’ wake (all as inhumanly handsome of he was, none of Mawat’s corpse-like hideousness or Moloch’s bestial appearance for _his_ followers). “Spread out, sweep the offices, secure the building. And enjoy yourselves.” A cheer went up and they scattered to fresh screams, and Ba’al turned back toward Hild’s inner sanctum, a wave of one hand unleashing a lightning storm that shattered the door to the anteroom holding the desk of the Daimakaicho’s personal secretary and strode through the smoking remnants.

He had not been exaggerating when he’d said that the defenses to the Daimakaicho’s inner sanctum were formidable, and he could sense them strengthening even as he felt them out. Then he didn’t need to sense them, as strand after strand of the Infernal script flashed into sight, crossing in front of inner door and wall like a massive ball of twine. They glowed darkly as they slowly rotated, vanishing into the floor and appearing through the ceiling, and he carefully looked over each looking a particular bit of code that had come to his attention. He and his weren’t the only ones longing for the old ways and disgusted with Hild’s soft-hearted squishiness, so too were at least one of those that maintained her defenses.

For a moment he was distracted with the memory of those ancient days. Not for him and most of those gods under his sovereignty the internecine power struggles of Olympus or the urge to conquer of the gods of Nineveh — no, sensuality was his delight, the scent of roasting flesh and the screams of children, the thrill of total dominion over the Canaanites that had made up his herd, and for his wives the pleasures of the flesh as the wives and daughters of his herd whored themselves in their honor.

But those days had ended, beginning of the end when the followers of the One had flooded into Canaan, slaughtering his herd and seizing the land, and final blow when the Eagles of Rome had first defeated and then crushed his herd’s last remnants in Carthage and sown the fields with salt. With their worshippers gone, the gods and goddesses of his pantheon had been left with nothing but bad choices. A few had joined other pantheons as minor deities. Some allowed themselves to fade, to become mere mortals caught in the cycle of rebirth. A few — weaklings that sought to provide comfort and healing to their pantheon’s playthings — had actually enslaved themselves to the One! But most chose to accept ‘service’ as demons under Hild as the best of their poor options.

 _But wheel has turned, and those days of pleasure will come again_ , he thought eagerly as he _finally_ saw the bit of code his informant had told him of. Before that piece of rotating strand could vanish into the floor, he dropped to one knee and leaned down to touch the string of script, and _willed_. Instantly, the script writhed as it shifted to new characters. They hastily turned away, just in time for _new_ ribbons of Infernal script sprang to life between them and the office and flashed bright with light and power.

/\

To the minions still in the outer offices, a massive flare of power hammered at them as a blinding ball of light surrounding the entirety of the Daimakaicho’s office sprang into existence. A few of the invading minions and office workers were unlucky enough to be bisected by the spell’s boundary, barely having a chance to scream before their exploding bodies sprayed sparkling dust, ichor, blood and gore across the offices — just as with another flare of power a chunk of Niflheim’s central headquarters vanished.

Even as the surviving minions gaped at the empty space where the Daimakaicho’s office had been — along with their four leaders — the office drones surged out from under their desks. Most of the minions died without ever seeing the swords and polearms that cut them down, the staves and handheld disks firing ribbons of power that lit them up like Christmas trees ... or the uniforms of the Furies the women among the ‘office drones’ were suddenly wearing. The few survivors of the initial ambush were swarmed under in moments, their own demonic powers and durability allowing them to take some of their enemies with them, but hopelessly outnumbered.

Janet yanked the same bladed staff she had wielded when sparring against Urd out of a writhing demon’s back, ignoring his dying moments as she looked around the room. She smiled grimly as the last of the rebels in the room went down under three Furies’ blades — there were a _lot_ of raping, murdering sociopaths that were going to learn what it was like on the receiving end as they found themselves on the mortals’ cycle of death and rebirth. Taking a deep breath, she shoved her unholy glee into a mental box and locked it away for future delight, then reached into her desk for her comm set, plugged it into her ear and adjusted the throat mic. “Cleansing head here, all units report.”

She listened to the roll call from the leaders of the rest of the teams of Furies that had replaced the normal office drones that day reported in, and this time her smile was of satisfaction as all reported successful takedowns and fewer losses to temporary discorporation than she’d expected, given that they’d had to lie back and take it until Hild sprung her trap. “Good job, everyone. The Daimakaicho’s dealing with the ringleaders, we’ve cleared out the riffraff, now we take care of their estates. Remember we need prisoners for interrogation so we can learn who else is  involved or knows about it, make sure it matches the Daimakaicho’s list. But after that no survivors, they _all_ go on the Wheel. Enjoy yourselves.”

/\

Ba’al’s stomach dropped and heaved as he was _yanked_ through a very thin straw, and he collapsed to his knees. Fighting to control his nausea, he desperately fed power to his eyes to heal the effects of the flash and pushed himself to his feet to look around.

They were standing on ... nothing. Nothing he could see, nothing he sense. No scent, no sound, nothing but gray — above, below, all around. And all the items of Power he had borne, to deal with Hild’s personal defenses, were gone.

“Where are we?”

Even the sound of Anat’s voice was dull, gray ... Ba’al had to force himself to concentrate, to suss out the meaning of her words.

“You’re in Limbo.”

The four demons whirled around to find Hild floating behind them, the hem of her suggestive dress blown about by a nonexistent breeze, ribbons of darkly glowing Infernal script circling around her, a gloating _evil_ smile on her face. A smile made all the more disturbing by the fact that she was ‘wearing’ her devastatingly cute child-form ... and that to every sense but sight and sound, there was nothing there.

Her smile grew even wider, more evil. “Or if you prefer, the Space Between Worlds, where the only power is what is within you.”

Ba’al stared at her, mind racing. His agent feeding him the plans for Hild’s defenses must have been a double agent, passing him what she had wanted him to know. Which meant that this must have been _planned_. But ...

He began to chuckle, his chuckles turning to laughter. “Fool! You thought I would come alone, refusing to share the victory and so the throne with my wife and consort, my right arm. If we are dependent solely on our own strengths, so too are you! You alone cannot face all of us, working as one.”

But the seeming child’s evil smile didn’t waver, and Ba’al’s eyes widened as the empty space she occupied slowly filled with Power such as he had never felt in one person.

“I and my husband are the Last of the First! There are none in either Asgard or Niflheim that can match us, or even two or three.” Her gloating grin suddenly transformed into an impish smile. “I will admit that _four_ fighting as one might be a bit much. But ... who said I came alone?”

Next to her floating child-like body the gray nothingness of Limbo seemed to swirl, churn, then slowly oozed apart to reveal Urd’s Junoesque figure standing beside her — a figure not barely covered with one of her sex-on-display dresses, but the latest iteration of a Fury’s full battle armor, the wings her mother had given her when she became the Furies’ commander fully extended and spread wide, paired swords in her hands. Floating above her head was her angel World of Elegance, _her_ black and white wings spread wide to match her mistress’s, bearing paired daggers. Urd, too, had removed all limiters and now was making no attempt to hide her own blazing power — she wasn’t the equal of Ba’al or even Anat, but World of Elegance gave her flexibility.

Ba’al’s heart sank. The obvious tactic was for one of the four invaders to hold off Hild while the other three swarmed her daughter — and it wasn’t going to happen. Whichever one faced Hild, even fighting purely defensively — even him — was unlikely to survive the experience, and his pantheon wasn’t known for self-sacrificial tendencies. None of the others would obey an order to face Hild alone.

“Mawat, with me. Anat, Athtart, deal with the spawn, then join us.” He circled to one side, ribbons of glowing script spinning around his raised fists, no hint of his despair in his face or stride as the former death god joined him while his wife and consort circling the opposite direction, forcing Hild and Urd to turn back-to-back. Maybe they’d get lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cribbed Hild's term "the Last of the First" from Thrythlind's excellent (though unfortunately incomplete) _Divine Blood_ and one of the greatest Moments of Awesome I've ever read.


	21. High Noon

Chibi-Moon glared up at the howling bull-man-demon-thing as his claws scraped again and again across the shield she’d thrown up over herself and Hotaru. She _really_ hoped that glare was hiding the fearful tremors running through her; the addition Puu had made to her moon rod — pink, heart-shaped crystal mounting on top, _way_ too baby-ish but her parents refused to give her anything more mature — before her latest return to the past was holding, but she had no idea how long it would last. Once the shield fell — and it _would_ fall, she could feel the rod beginning to quiver even now — she would have only her usual bag of tricks to protect them, and none of them were powerful enough to do all _that_ much damage to an ordinary mortal, much less a demon lord ... she needed the presence of Mamo-chan or her Baka-mama to unlock the _really_ powerful stuff. After all, what idiot would give a _real_ weapon to a prepubescent without supervision?

And at the moment, she felt so very, very alone.

“Get away from her!”

A familiar golden wave of power tore across the lawn and hammered into the bull-demon, sending him skipping across the grass. Even as the torn-up chunks of sod and dirt were still falling, a thundering wave of water washed over him, rolling him further away.

“Yes!” Chibi-Moon twisted around, smiling broadly. “Aunt —” She froze, eyes widening at the sight of Aunt Neptune, Aunt Uranus, Puu ... but not _her_ Aunt Neptune, Aunt Uranus, Puu. While all of the Senshi had told her tales of their youngest days, they had refused to tell her any that had involved _her_. And she’d found it intriguing that these three had told her fewer tales than any of the others.

Only it was instantly obvious that these weren’t the three that had told her those few stories: Neptune’s movements were awkward, uncertain; Uranus moved like she knew what she was doing, but was holding her Sword like it was a bat; and Puu ... actually, the only difference between this Pluto and her own was the costume that matched those of the rest of the Senshi, that none of them had worn in centuries.

_Huh, this must be their origin story_.

But that didn’t mean nothing could go wrong, Puu had repeatedly warned her of how mutable history could be.

Another groan from the form huddled at her feet yanked Chibi-Moon’s attention away from the incipient fight. Hotaru rolled and looked up. “Usagi?”

Chibi-Moon flinched. “You can rec ... uhh, who?”

Hotaru sat up and looked around, eyes widening. “The Senshi ... Usagi, you’re with the Senshi!?” Then a roar of anger yanked her head around, to the soaked, muddy, _furious_ bull-demon rising to his feet and she paled, then looked around wildly. “Momma!” Her eyes fell on the charred and smoking corpse and she froze. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

Chibi-Moon took her arm and began to slowly push away from the fight, sliding on her butt, using the unnatural strength her hero form gave her (for her age) to pull her friend along with her. “Come on, Hotaru, we can’t stay here.”

Hotaru allowed herself to be pulled along without resisting, her eyes never leaving her mother’s body.

/\

Mars’s last soaring leap carried her over the wall around the school grounds. She was already looking around frantically as her knees bent, absorbing the force of her landing. Chili-Moon was sitting by the gate, one hand holding out her moon rod, an unfamiliar glowing ball of energy surrounding her and the raven-haired girl about her own size, sitting in her lap and sobbing into her shoulder. Out on the blasted, ripped up, muddy lawn Pluto with her garnet-tipped staff and a massive bull-headed demon with glowing red energy-claws were furiously exchanging blows ... actually, Pluto was landing blow after blow with incredible ease while ducking and dodging every swing of the demon’s claws. The emerald-haired Senshi abruptly leaped back and a massive jet of water hammered into the demon, knocking him back even as it engulfed him. The swirling ball of water lifted, bearing him up into the air and spinning him as if he was stuck in a washing machine. Mars tracked back along the stream still feeding into the ball to the upraised hand of a Neptune sitting on the lawn, her other arm across her stomach, her skirt and legs drenched with red. Next to her lay another unmoving facedown body in Senshi costume.

Mars was running before that body even fully registered, dropping to her knees beside Uranus. She carefully rolled her new teammate over, cursing the way her gloves interfered with getting a pulse, then sagged in relief when Uranus’ chest rose and fell. She began gently running her hands along Uranus’ body.

Neptune asked, “How is she?”

“Alive so she’ll be all right. I can’t find any broken bones but we won’t want to move her until she’s done healing or Moon gets here, in case she has internal injuries. Where is Moon, anyway?”

“In the school. I hope she gets here soon.”

Mars’ head shot up at the tight, strained sound of Neptune’s voice registered, really focusing on her for the first time. A moment later she was summoning her communicator. When the hologram of Moon’s head appeared in response to her emergency call, she barked, “Moon, we need you out here now!”

“Mars, I’m busy right now.”

Mars was startled by the snarl in her leader’s voice, then winced when _Moon’s_ appearance sank in — blood-streaked cheeks, cut by tear tracks. “Moon ... Neptune’s trying to engage in a boss fight while holding in her guts with one arm.”

“ ... I’ll be right there.”

Moon’s head vanished, and Mars returned her communicator to her ‘bag of holding’. “Neptune, you heard that, stop trying to help until she get here and heals you. I’ll help Pluto keep that thing —”

“Moloch.”

“That’s Moloch? This _is_ the boss fight, isn’t it? I’ll help Pluto distract him until you can rejoin us.”

Neptune nodded and cut off her ongoing water blast, and Mars rose and dashed away— away from the two newest Senshi, and away from Chibi-Moon and the girl she was comforting. Once well away and with no one beyond a Moloch and Pluto once again furiously going after each other, she stopped and summoned her fire bow to hand. _Careful now_ , she thought as she squinted through the flames leaping along the arrow she was aiming. _Pluto isn’t going to thank you if she spins into your shot. Wait for it ... wait for it_....

Moloch stepped back away from the Senshi he simply couldn’t land a blow on, and Mars released — just in time for her heart to leap into her mouth when Pluto side-stepped into the path of her blazing arrow. She started to shout a warning, just as Moloch turned to face his opponent, Pluto abruptly dropped to the ground — and Mars’s shot plunged into Moloch’s chest.

The bull-demon roared, grabbing at the arrow piercing between his ribs. Smoke rose from sizzling flesh of chest and hand, and Mars gaped as he yanked the arrow _made of fire_ out and threw it away. He looked about for the source of the arrow as Pluto scrambled out from in front of him, and Mars blanched as his gaze met hers. He snarled and began lumbering toward her, only to roar again as Pluto plunged the butt-spike of her staff into his back. He whirled around, a large hunk of emerald hair floating away as his red glowing claws swiped through the space her head had occupied a split-second before.

Mars drew a shaky breath — she didn’t care how powerful he was, no demon should have shrugged off that shot so easily! _Unless he isn’t a demon_.... She resummoned her communicator.

No holograph this time, just Mercury’s tight voice: “ _A little busy here, Mars!_ ”

“Mercury, have you scanned any of the things we’re fighting?”

A short pause. “ _No, there’s so many I didn’t see the point. Give me a moment_.” A long pause. “ _Did you know we aren’t fighting demons?_ ”

“It didn’t even occur to me that I wasn’t sensing any demonic energy, I just assumed that’s what we’re facing; you too, apparently. But Moloch just shrugged off a fire arrow to the chest. Why aren’t they demons? Raven said they’re coming from Hell.”

“ ... _She also said Moloch’s summoning would make_ this _his home dimension. Maybe the same applies to everyone coming through the portal? Maybe having this as their home dimension means they can’t be demons_.”

Mars glanced up, then away from the eye-searing black portal hovering above the school. “And they’re still coming through. Everyone needs to get back here and deal with Moloch so we can concentrate on sealing that portal. Who knows how many more are waiting to come through? The Justice League’s own mystics might be working on that right now, but we can’t count on it. And Pluto and I can’t deal with Moloch alone —” She glanced over at the injured Senshi, to find Moon kneeling beside Neptune, her hands glowing as she healed their teammate. “— and Neptune and Uranus, as much help as they’ll be when Moon gets done —” She paused as a new presence made itself felt, a _truly_ demonic one this time, and a familiar one.

An inky-black circle was rapidly forming on the lawn not far away, and a moment later an immense bird-shaped shadow erupted from that circle before fading away to reveal Raven floating above the battle, the fabric of her costume shriveling away from the black flames encompassing her clenched fists and four red eyes blazing from under the hood of her cloak. “ _Moloch!_ ”

/\

Raven snarled as she stared down at the burnt-red-skinned, bull-headed former god below her. She had awoken seconds earlier to Thought pecking her cheek, to find herself in the bedroom she had shared the last few nights with Rei. It hadn’t been hard to figure out what had happened ... and how stupid she had been ... and she had rushed outside with her heart in her throat to find the void-dark portal hovering in the sky. Now she floated underneath that portal after the longest single-jump teleport in her life, one that would have been impossible if even through her raging guilt-fed anger she hadn’t been able to sense Rei.

She hesitated for just a moment, yanking on the reins of her burning need to rend and destroy the monster that had engineered a child’s serial rapes, ending in arranging for her to kill the mother that loved her. Pluto, dodging a swipe of the claws of red, glowing power around Moloch’s meaty hands, leaping back to break contact; Moon ignoring her presence as the Senshi leader’s hands glowed where they were pressed against a Neptune gaping up at Raven; Uranus beside them, beginning to stir; off to one side Mars also gaping up at her, holding a communicator to her ear; against the wall by the school gates a pink-haired tiny Senshi that had to be Chiba-Moon, her arms around a raven-haired child clutching her and sobbing —

Raven’s control snapped like a too-tight wire and she dove straight at Moloch. Her fists stretched out in front of her, night-black power pouring out of those fists to wrap around her like a shroud, she aimed straight for the cauturized wound in the center of Moloch’s chest ... and found herself skipping across the lawn.

She finally rolled to a stop, ears ringing, sight spangled with stars, covered in dirt and grass. Sitting up, she looked back along the line of divots carved out of the lawn where she had bounced to find Moloch clumping toward her — considering the ponderous inevitability as each massive hoof came down, the ground really should have been shaking with each step. “Run, little coward!” he bellowed as he approached. “Run, show the world what the Daimakaicho’s granddaughter is made of!”

Raven snarled as she leaped to her feet, almost fell over again as she over-balanced on her hooves, then kicked up more if smaller divots in the lawn as she charged to meet him, ignoring the cries from the Senshi present. Just as they were about to collide an arrow of pure fire pierced Moloch’s side and he stumbled, his swinging claws going wide, and their heat washed over Raven as she ducked to smash a fist into his gut and another into his groin and the huge swinging dick there just before she body-slammed into his legs. He tripped and fell, and she twisted around just in time to block a back-kicking hoof with crossed arms covered by her soul-field. The impact was still enough to send her skidding back.

The two shakily rose to their feet, Moloch thanks to the low blow and Raven still adjusting to her hooves and fighting for control, and she stared at him as he yanked out the arrow and cast it aside to lie burning on the lawn for a moment before it vanished. She was in trouble. _They_ were in trouble. Now that the kick had knocked her out of her berserker rage and she was actually thinking again (though she could still feel it snarling and clawing in the back of her mind), she was frantically going over her options. Her preferred tactics as Raven weren’t going to work — there was nothing around that she could throw at Moloch that he wouldn’t laugh off; lifting _him_ would last only as long as it took him to break free — not long, given his likely strength — and the mental backlash would be both painful and disorienting; engulfing him within her soul-self, a top-rank earth spirit even if newly-minted, would be even worse than lifting him off the ground; and while she could form shields — even armor — with her soul-self, she couldn’t increase her own pitifully inadequate physical striking power and he’d already shrugged off her best shot. She could _feel_ the new power her transformation into a full demon had unleashed, but she didn’t know how to _use_ it! Yes, she’d destroyed one of the rooms of Auntie Bell’s home, but she’d been out of control and running on instinct — she had no idea how to repeat what she’d done and this was no time to experiment. Sure, as Ranma he had occasionally come up with a new technique in the middle of a fight, but he had also often gotten his head handed to him and had to retreat, regroup, and come back for a rematch, and that simply wasn’t an option this time.

And Moloch was angry, as angry as she had been — he was literally burning with rage, the red energy he’d used to form his claws crawling up his arms and across his chest. She could _feel_ the heat from yards away —

She froze as inspiration hit. It was stupid ... insane, even, given the disparity in their physical strength and toughness. But it could work, if she could not just control but suppress her new — or rather enhanced — nature. She backed up a little to give herself a bit more reaction time and cast her mind inward, seeking out the burning rage that had possessed her since her transformation, and ... was it _giggling?_ Her Mama Mara had said that raging hate had a mind of its own, but ...

_Deal with it later_. She called out, “Everyone stay back, Moloch is mine!”

There were shouts of protest that she ignored, staying focused on her now laughing enemy. “You, deal with _me?_ ” he demanded when he caught his breath. “Alone? You’re pitiful.”

“Yeah, well, that shouldn’t be a problem, considering little girls are your speed.” She deliberately dropped her gaze to his crotch and the massive dick swinging there, bare to the breeze. “I’m surprised you didn’t make yourself smaller, _that_ just isn’t going to fit anyone you’d actually want to play with. They won’t want ta play with you, a’course, but then neither will any _real_ women. I wonder how big a bribe you’d hafta pay ta _get_ a real woman? I’m sure _you_ don’t hafta wonder, seein’ how many demonesses you must’a had ta pay over the centuries.”

She suppressed a wince as she taunted Moloch, both because she found herself falling back into Ranma’s less-than-proper Japanese and because of how crude her jibes were — Ranma had been the master of the perfect taunt but she’d never really put in the practice needed even with the perfect tool that was her empathy, first because she would have been trying to taunt _Mama Lind_ and that wouldn’t have ended well, and then once she joined the Teen Titans she’d been too chronically depressed to bother.

But it seemed she didn’t need Ranma’s skill, as Moloch flushed with anger — _really_ flushed, the bright red blossoming around his horns and flowing over his head and down his chest. He threw back his head, tossing his horns, and the rage burning in the back of her mind ... well, it wasn’t _really_ giggling, she didn’t actually hear anything, but she _felt_ like it was giggling and she couldn’t help remembering how her mind had been fractured with each emotion getting its own existence and personality (of a one-dimensional sort).

_Later_. She took her worry that she was cracking again and put it in its own metaphorical box. She added her loathing for the monster she was facing; her guilt that she hadn’t moved fast enough to stop him ... her nervousness about being reunited with Akan — uh, Rei, her delight that Rei had accepted her so readily, so completely; her loathing for her fathers, her love for her family, her delight in her friends, her occasional embarrassment at Starfire’s over-the-top enthusiasm for, well, everything ... in went every emotion that haunted Raven for good or ill. And finally, the fire that had felt like it was trying to tear its way out of brain but now went willingly — eagerly — into the box after the rest, ‘giggling’ all the while.

Then Moloch was on top of her, all massive seven feet, and she was desperately back-pedaling, ducking, arms shadowed by her soul knocking aside the swipes of Moloch’s burning red claws, more of her darkened soul a lighter sheath protecting the rest of her body from the heat radiating from the furious former demon.

And as she backed up, frost began radiating out across the grass from each backward step of her ice-coated hooves.


	22. Half Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to say this chapter is so late because of how long it is, but that only covers two of the last four weeks. Health and general busyness covers another week. The last was because this chapter simply didn't want go be written, especially Hotaru's POV. Still, it's done! I'm figuring two more chapters to finish this up.

“Don’t interfere! Leave Raven to deal with him!”

“But what is she _doing_? She’s never done anything like this before.”

“No, but _he_ has.”

Hotaru sniffled, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her school uniform blouse. Her throat ached, her eyes itched, her cheeks felt chapped, her nose was runny, she felt thoroughly miserable. And focusing on how much she hurt was an improvement.

She finally tore her eyes away from the smoking corpse she’d somehow reduced her mother to and shifted slightly, only now really realizing that her new friend Usagi (Chibi-Moon!) was holding her, awkwardly rocking them and murmuring promises that everything would be all right ... somehow.

Swallowing to clear her throat, she husked out, “What’s happening?”

“Hotaru, you don’t need —”

“What’s happening!?” The raven-haired schoolgirl forced herself to sit up and looked around, and her eyes widened at the sight of the seven-foot-tall, horned, muzzle-faced _thing_ tearing up the school lawn with its hooves as it chased bellowing after a vaguely familiar gray-skinned, raven-haired girl wearing a black leotard. From the smoke rising from the bull-thing and grass bursting into flames with each step, its red skin wasn’t just natural skin tone. The girl had some form of glowy-black energy in front of her forearms, and was ducking under and knocking aside the _thing_ ’s attempts to eviscerate her with its own red glowing claws as she desperately backed away — _also_ tearing up the lawn with her much smaller hooves. “What _is_ that thing?”

“I don’t know, I think your father summoned it.”

“My father! Where is he?”

“I ... I don’t know.” Usagi — Chibi-Moon — swallowed convulsively. “From the blood and ... and the mess scattered around when I got to you, I think that thing tore him apart.”

“Good!” Hotaru froze. Her new friend — her only friend — was going to be repulsed by how she hated her father, she’d abandon her, Hotaru would be all alone —

Usagi’s arms around her tightened. “Yes, he’ll never touch you again.”

_What!?_ Hotaru twisted in Usagi’s arms, their noses bumping, her eyes going cross-eyed for a moment at how close their faces were before she pulled back, breaking the embrace. “You _knew_ what he was doing to me?”

“I ... I guessed,” Usagi admitted, her eyes dropping in shame. “I told my ... my family, but we didn’t have any proof, nothing we could take to the police! I was going to ... to try to get you to open up, admit it so we could —”

Hotaru threw herself forward, desperately embracing her friend and finding she still had a few tears left. Someone still cared about her....

“Ranma!”

The two jerked around at the shriek to find the gray-skinned girl skipping and rolling across the lawn. The bull- _thing_ took two steps after before a blinding lightning bolt slammed down out of a clear sky, a fiery arrow plunged into one bicep and another bounced off one of its horns, blazing twin beams of green light hammered into its chest, knocking it off its feet. It yanked out the arrow, rose to its feet and stepped to one side to avoid a massive crackling yellow ball tearing another trench in the lawn, tossed its head and bellowed at the orange skinned girl in purple halter top and skirt flying around it, before turning toward the attacking Senshi.

“No, he’s mine!”

The gray-skinned girl was back on her feet — hooves — and charging back into the fight.

“This’s a right royal cock-up, isn’t it?”

The two children whirled at the question — asked in an English they could barely understand — to find a tall, blond, unshaven gaijin standing next to them, dressed in pale green trousers, a stained white buttoned shirt with a red tie loosely knotted, and a light brown trench coat. He watched the duel tearing up the school yard for a few moments then glanced down at the girls, his gaze shifting between the two before focusing on Hotaru.

“Rough day, huh? Rough life. How’d you like to be someone else?”

“S-Someone else?” Hotaru asked, her voice quavering. “Who? How?”

‘Who? A fairy tale princess on the island of Crete, three thousand years ago. Sure, her death wasn’t much fun, but she had eight close friends, parents that loved her — a strong girl, with purpose. As for how ...”

He slipped a hand inside his coat, and when his hand came out it held a clear crystal shining with a soft purple light.

Usagi sucked in her breath. “A memory crystal!”

“John Constantine, you bastard!” At the shout the two girls whirled _again_ , to find the emerald-haired Senshi in the black-and-white sailor fuku stalking toward them. “You hold it right there! Don’t you girls accept _anything_ from that man!” As the girls hastily scrambled to their feet, she stopped beside them to glare up at the gaijin, laying into him with a long string of inventive curses. She ended with, “So just what are you offering them?”

He had closed his hand as she approached, and now his fingers uncurled to reveal the softly glowing crystal.

The Senshi sucked in her breath. “A memory crystal! Whose is it?”

He smirked. “A three-thousand-year-old Cretan princess named Psykhe.” His smirk broadened when she paled, swaying in place. “Yes, Setsuna, another one of your merry band.”

“Call me Pluto when I’m in uniform.” But Pluto’s response was distracted at best, her gaze lifting to the light-sucking vortex above them. After a moment her eyes dropped. “And just how did you end up here, _now_ , with just what we need?”

Constantine shrugged. “I’ve had the memory crystal for over a decade, it just never seemed the right moment to drop by. Then last night ... well, two nights ago, here ... I was enjoying, ah —” His eyes shifted to the two girls listening in. “— _the company_ of a good friend of mine, who happens to be a seer. She woke up from a dream, kicked me out of bed, and just about dragged me on to a plane for Tokyo.” He shrugged again. “So here I am.”

Pluto stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed, before jerking a nod. “I may perhaps ... owe you a sequel.”

Constantine grinned and opened his mouth, then paused and glanced down at the girls. After a moment he said, “Sure, I’m always _up_ for that.”

Usagi — _Chibi-Moon_ , Hotaru reminded herself, _she’s in uniform_ — made a face, and Pluto winced. The Senshi was just opening her mouth to respond when a shout came from out on the lawn: “Everyone, down, right now! Starfire, get out of here!”

Pluto turned and stared at the gray-skinned girl and massive bull-thing still fighting in the middle of the lawn, and paled. She shouted, “Chibi-Moon, dome-shield, now!” as she whirled around toward the gaijin, hooked one foot behind his ankle, and pushed. He fell over backward with a started yelp, and Pluto landed on top of him.

Then Chibi-Moon was grabbing Hotaru’s arm and yanking her down to crouch beside her, golden energy sweeping out from the Senshi’s signature rod held above their heads to form a translucent dome over the pair.

/\

Raven gritted her teeth as she continued to back up. She was on her third attempt to finish the Hiryu Shoten Ha, she had dirt and grass stains on her uniform (her cloak was long gone) and smeared across face, legs and hair—not to mention bruises — from bouncing across the lawn; she suspected she had internal bleeding from Moloch’s kick that had _sent_ her across the lawn like a rock skipped across a lake; her uniform across her stomach hung in tatters to reveal three scratches oozing ... something ... where a swinging claw had come within inches of disemboweling her; and one arm was now hanging useless at her side thanks to Moloch _just_ breaking through one of her shields to hammer home a glancing blow against the flesh beneath it.

Oh, yes, and she thought the bare flesh of her face and legs was threatening to blister from the waves of heat radiating from her enemy; she was actually a little surprised her hair hadn’t spontaneously combusted, the intense cold she was radiating her only protection. That, at least, had been going to plan — after more taunts about Moloch’s pitiful sexual prowess, his fixation on little children and what it said about his own infantile state, the cowardice revealed by his running from Hild, and his sheer stupidity in thinking that Earth’s heroes would let him get away with setting up his own personal hellhole kingdom _right in the middle of one of the most important cities on the planet_ , Moloch was literally frothing at the mouth. The monster had long since been reduced to enraged bellowing, and his red energy claws had vanished as he had descended to brute-force hammering away at the gadfly constantly fading away in front of him. He’d lost all control of his power, the heat charring the grass for yards around him except for the steam rising where it met the frost radiating out from Raven’s hooves. She could feel currents of air already beginning to shift and twist around them.

_This is going to be one for the ages_.

The thought was distant, her focus narrowed to the enemy before her: watching every twitch and shift of Moloch’s bulging muscles forecasting his every move, slipping aside from blows, using her shield over her one good arm to deflect those she couldn’t duck, frantically coming up with new insults (each more bizarre and perverse than the last) ... and leading him in an ever-tightening spiral. Just a few more steps ... now!

She ducked one more clumsy swing but this time she stepped _forward_ , almost crouching, and before Moloch could react to her in-his-face presence she thrust her fist up, almost brushing his muzzle, her whole body following. As she reached for the sky she released all the cold she had managed to build ups, and as a tribute to her last life shouted “Ascending Dragon Strike!”

Instantly all the cold and heat that had been mixing as they’d spiraled inward tightened like a knot jerked tight and exploded inward and upward, spiraling along the path they had forged, only the dead center where Raven stood not ripping skyward.

Moloch was _not_ in the dead center with Raven and she bared her teeth in a savage grin as those winds yanked him up into maelstrom, the power-saturated winds tearing at him as he spun like a top. The anger that has gone ‘giggling’ into her mental ‘box’ exploded out of its confinement, the ‘shriek’ of its exultation filling her mind.

Then another shriek caught her attention, and she whipped around. She had been so caught up in her lust for Moloch’s destruction that she had forgotten to warn everyone else what she was doing, and now she paled at the sight of a screaming Jupiter tumbling through the air toward the icy/fiery tornado tearing apart the landscape.

Instantly Raven was in the air, riding the winds extending one arm out ahead of her, her teeth meeting through her lip as she fought to ignore the feeling of the jagged ends of her broken arm slicing into muscle. She just hoped those bones didn’t cut any important nerves. (Did demons have nerves? She’d have to study up on demonic anatomy.) Within seconds she was close enough and her soul-form flowed out along and past her extended arm to surround the flailing girl just short of where the winds turned into a meat grinder. Hoping that being so intimately covered by demonic energy didn’t make the Senshi _too_ sick, she started to pull away, to ease them to safety, only to yelp as the winds yanked at her, pulling the pair toward the whirling vortex. _What? What!?_ she shouted mentally. _My powers don’t_ work _this way!_ And they didn’t or at least they hadn’t — whenever she captured or moved something with her soul-form, none of the momentum transferred along the connection to her physical form. But apparently going full demon had done more than just boost her power levels.

But experimentation to find out what any new strengths and weaknesses she had might be would have to wait, now it was all she could do to keep Jupiter from being pulled into the vortex and herself along for the ride. She was beginning to wonder just what she’d done, surely the energy fueling the vortex should have bled away by now — !

And then orange-skinned arms circled her waist. She had been so focused on her rescue mission she hadn’t sensed Starfire’s approach, but now her alien friend’s fear and determination flooded into her through their skin on skin-and- ... ichor? ... contact. Raven fought to push away that flood along with her own fear and maintain her soul-form’s grip on Jupiter, adding the strength of her own flight to Starfire’s as the trio slowly pulled away....

And the whirling vortex came apart, shedding dying streamers of flame and vanishing shards of ice. The forces holding him up gone, the now clearly visible Moloch plummeted limply to hit the center of the shallow crater dug down to bedrock with a massive thud.

The trio slowly dropped to land beside him, Raven now cradled in Starfire’s arms having given up flying entirely to concentrate on holding on to Jupiter, as all around them clumps of grass and dirt pattered down.

As soon as they touched down Raven withdrew her soul-form from around Jupiter, and the earth-haired Senshi promptly rolled up onto her hands and knees and threw up her breakfast.

Moon slid to a halt, arms pinwheeling to keep from overbalancing from the abrupt halt to her sprint to join them. “Jupiter, Raven, are you all right!?”

Jupiter leaned back on her heels and wiped her mouth. “I’m all right, just nauseous from Raven’s soul-touch.” Turning toward the Titans, she continued, “Raven, don’t think I’m not grateful but — Raven!”

Moon followed Jupiter’s gaze and paled at the sight of the black ichor dripping from the shreds of uniform hanging from her stomach and runneling down her chin, arm hanging limp. Without hesitation she stepped over with uplifted hands already beginning to glow with healing ... again. “I’m going to be doing this a lot, aren’t I?”

“Yes, you probably will,” Mars growled as she joined them. She gently slapped her girlfriend on the back her her head. “Raven, what were you _thinking_?”

Raven sighed as the piercing pain in her arm faded under the ministration of Moon’s glowing hands. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“It ... you ...” Mars sighed. “I can’t believe you’re channeling Ranma, now. You didn’t even notice the occasional fire arrow and lightning bolt distracting him, did you? Don’t tell me you were this aggressive as a Titan!”

“No, she wasn’t,” Robin agreed, to Raven’s surprise. When did _he_ show up? “What have I told you about attacks that leave you helpless against any follow up?”

“Don’t.” Raven blushed, her eyes dropping as shame filled her at the overwhelming relief washing over her from Mars — her girlfriend must have been terrified. She muttered, “I didn’t think it would be so hard?”

Mars threw up her hands. “And once you knew you weren’t willing to give it up and try something else. I’m doomed — doomed! — to spend the rest of my life saving _your_ life!”

“ ... so what should we have done instead?”

Mars opened her mouth, paused, and finally her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. But can we come up with something less suicidal next time?”

There was no way to answer that — she hadn’t told Mars that it would be up to her grandmother what she’d be doing next, and now wasn’t the time — so she did something completely out of character for both Ranma _and_ Raven. She shook herself free from Moon’s gentle hands and stepped forward to pull Mars into a hug.

Mars stiffened, then her own arms came up to return the embrace.

Raven waited until the storm in Mars’s heart eased along with the shivers running through her girlfriend’s body, then reluctantly broke the embrace. She looked around to find teary eyes among the Senshi and dropped jaws among the Titans. (She had no idea when they’d shown up, except for Starfire.) “What? You’ve never seen people hugging?” She glared at Starfire, who was bobbing gently in the air, her hands clasped under her chin and a grin practically splitting her face. From the gleeful joy she was radiating, she ought to have had pink hearts in her green eyes. Raven jabbed a finger at her alien friend. “No squees!”

Starfire frantically shook her head, hair as fiery as Raven’s had been before her transformation flying about her face, but neither her grin nor her emotions faltered.

Raven sighed and turned toward Moloch’s body. “Come on, let’s make sure this is over.” She glanced up at the still-existent portal hanging above them. “Or soon will be.” She stalked over, wobbling a little on her hooves. (Interesting how during the fight with Moloch she had been almost as sure-footed as before, and as soon as the fight was over she was back to what she thought it must be like to wear stiletto heels for the first time.) standing over the body, she sucked in a breath. “I don’t believe it, he’s still alive! Well, we can rectify that.”

She glanced around the gathered heroes. The Titans were right out, they didn’t deal out death. Well, _Starfire_ might, in spite of her bubbly, happy personality the Tamaranean hid a ruthlessly pragmatic streak that Raven suspected was common to her people — they _were_ a warrior people, after all, and no one did ruthless pragmatism as well as _real_ warriors. _No, let her continue to keep her ruthlessness under a bushel, unlike me she’s going to continue as a Titan. Let them keep their ace in the hole they don’t even know they have_.

She shifted her gaze to the Senshi to find the gaze not much better there. Sure, they had exorcised or in some cases killed she didn’t know how many demons, but from the emotions she was picking up of those Senshi that had arrived (all but Venus, it looked like) killing in cold blood was another matter. Especially ... “Moon, we don’t have a choice.” Raven waved up at the portal — fluctuating now, but still disgorging demons. “The Justice League has some of the best mystics in the world in their ranks. If they haven’t closed it yet, they can’t. And that’s almost certainly because it is tied to Moloch — he can close it when he chooses, but no one else can while he lives.”

Moon’s pale, bloody, pinched expression didn’t change, but she jerked a nod.

Raven looked about again. Uranus had the determination she’d expect of someone partly raised by an Amazon and a sword of her own, but ... _No, I’m not letting her become a killer in her first fight, my sorta-sister-in-laws would never forgive me doing that to their daughter_. And Venus, who had both the weapons in her chains and the determination, wasn’t there. So that left ... “Mars? Test your new sword?”

Mars nodded, grim but determined, and her flame katana appeared in her hand.

“Wait!”

Mars paused at Mercury’s shout, and everyone turned to stare at the blue-haired Senshi standing a few yards away from Moloch’s body and staring down at him through yet another crystal.

Raven waited a moment, then said, “Mercury, we don’t have a choice if we want to shut down the portal.”

“I know, but ...” She waited a few more seconds, then sighed. “You did notice he’s an Earth Spirit now, didn’t you?”

“What!?” Raven whirled back around to stare down at their enemy. Now that she wasn’t blinded by her hatred and focus on the fight, she could sense that the Senshi of Ice was correct. “Well, _shit_.”

Those that understood her switch to English giggled or goggled, depending on personality and how well they knew her, but a now-concerned Moon stepped in between Mercury and Raven. Her gaze flitted between them and Moloch. “Why is this a problem?”

Raven motioned to Mercury, and the researcher for the Senshi replied, “Because without the right weapons or spells you can’t just kill the most powerful of the Earth Spirits. It’ll look like you did, but in anywhere from a few hours to a few years they’ll be back and you’ll have to deal with them all over again. That’s why Solomon trapped the Jinn in bottles with severe restrictions on how they can use their powers instead of simply killing them. And from what I’m reading, Moloch is at that level.”

“I see.” Moon glanced between Raven and Mercury again, turned her head to look at Pluto. “Can we trap _Moloch_ in a bottle?”

All three shook their heads. Raven said, “The bottles have to be prepared first, Moloch isn’t the right kind of Spirit, and even if he was and we had a bottle I don’t know the proper ritual. Mercury, Set — Pluto, do you?”

The other two shook their heads.

“I might have an answer.”

Along with everyone else, Raven tensed and turned to stare at the scruffy, blond gaijin she hadn’t even realized was there. Other than the fact that she could see him, he wasn’t ... there wasn’t so much as a hint of his presence to either her empathy or her ability to sense magic and the supernatural. “Constantine! What are _you_ doing here?”

He gave her a snarky grin around the inevitable cigarette. “Nobody’s happy to see me, even when I bring gifts.”

“The Greeks at Troy had nothing on you,” Raven rebutted. “What gifts?”

“Set —” He stiffened at the Emerald-haired Senshi’s glare. “Ah, _Pluto’s_ already gotten one, here’s another.” He reached inside his trench coat and pulled out ... the head of a halberd? No, a glaive, like a Japanese naginata — and it was attached to a shaft that just kept getting longer as he kept pulling it out hand-over hand. The other Titans were goggling again, but the Senshi shrugged it off; it wasn’t anything they couldn’t do themselves, and better after all.

Then Pluto sucked in her breath. “The Silence Glaive! But none of us can use —” She froze, then turned to stare at Hotaru and Chibi-Moon still standing back by the gate, then lifted her gaze to the portal. After a moment, she dropped her eyes back to Constantine and asked, “Did your seer friend ‘suggest’ you bring that along with you?” Constantine just smirked, and she sighed as she waved for the watching children to join them.

/\

When Pluto had hurried to join the rest of the Senshi around the body of the monster that had killed Hotaru’s father, she had told the two children to stay back. Chibi-Moon had happily agreed, and Hotaru had silently stayed beside her friend — and the only reason she didn’t bolt from the school yard-turned-abbatoir. But she had no one else left but her new friend, so she’d stayed and watched uncomprehendingly.

Then the emerald-haired Senshi that had cursed at the gaijin waved for the two to join the rest. Hotaru hesitated, and Chibi-Moon gently took her by the arm. The pink-haired tiny Senshi whispered, “Come on, Ho-chan, it’ll be all right. You’ll see.” Hotaru briefly considered bolting again, but she still had nowhere else to go so reluctantly allowed herself to be guided up to the others.

As the two joined the others, the Senshi that had ranted at the gaijin summoned the faintly glowing purple crystal the gaijin had first shone Hotaru out of empty air and crouched to put herself at eye-level with her. “Hotaru, I am Sailor Pluto. This contains the memories of a life far in your past, when you were Psykhe, proud Princess of House Cronus on the island of Crete and knew me as Princess Daria. You suffered a fatal injury during a bull dance, and so weren’t able to join your friends —” A hand swept to encompass the rest of the Senshi. “— in our millennia-long fight to protect the world from my sister’s folly ... treason. Will you join us? Will you help us kill the monster that turned your parents against you, and to permanently close the Gate he used to attack our world?”

Hotaru couldn’t stop the shivers of fear running through her, and she twisted to gaze pleadingly at Chibi-Moon standing next to her. Chibi-Moon met her gaze, then turned to stare searchingly at Pluto for a long moment before turning back to Hotaru and nod.

Hotaru turned back to the crouching Pluto and also nodded as Chibi-Moon snaked an arm around her waist. “I’ll do it.” Then, her voice beginning to shake, she asked, “Will I become Shr — Psykhe?” _Will I still be me?_

“No,” Pluto assured her. “You will remember her life, but it’ll be like watching a movie and a cheap one at that — it will be _her_ life, not yours. You’ll still be you.” She held out the crystal, and dropped it into the girl’s cupped, trembling palms. “Focus on the crystal.”

Hotaru took a deep breath as Chibi-Moon’s arm around her waist tightened, then stared down at the glowing crystal. For a long moment nothing happen, then just as her breath was gusting out in relief the crystal brightened, expanded until it seemed to fill her whole world, she felt like she was falling....

Pluto hadn’t been exactly truthful — it _wasn’t_ like watching a movie. She found herself in another’s body — hair still dark, skin tinted, but ... not quite the same shades. And her epicanthic folds were missing. But the girl she was laughed a lot, hugged her parents a lot, played a lot with her friends the other princesses (or most of them, Princess Daria was as old as the Queen). Much of that ‘play’ would have had her blushing and feeling faint, if she had been in control ... though she was a little wistful that she was so young, and would have to wait a few years to _really_ experience it. And men as well, though she doubted she could find any boys in Japan to match the Greek princes that had come to Crete for the festivals.

But though she got a solid grounding in what _real_ sex felt like, much less lovemaking, along with experiencing having family and friends that really loved her, Pluto wasn’t completely wrong, either — it _wasn’t_ like living another life, not exactly. She felt both the pain and pleasure of Psykhe’s life, physical and emotional, but it was never _her_ pain and pleasure ... there was a detachment that never faded, and never let her forget that she was watching a life already lived rather than participating in it.

Then came the final bull dance, the slip, the piercing pain in her groin. Waking up in bed with her mother and friends gathered around, to be told she was unlikely to survive her wound. The princesses being forced to leave her behind as they left with Celene and Alexander to save the world. The decision of the Council in the Queen’s absence to make a crystal of her life, as they had with the other princesses.

Hotaru threw herself out of the dream like a breaching dolphin throwing itself into the air, spasming wildly against the arms of whoever held her. Her vision cleared and she found herself looking up at the concerned face of Sailor Moon.

The crouching Senshi asked, “Are you all right?”

She nodded and looked around, to find that it was Chibi-Moon’s arms embracing her. The pair were lying on the dirt coated grass. “What are we doing down here?”

“You collapsed, and I caught you ... tried to, anyway. You sure you’re okay? Mama didn’t collapse when she first remembered. At least, she never said she did.”

“No, I didn’t,” Moon agreed.

“You’ve been using your crystal to remember that life for three millennia,” Pluto reminded her, “nothing made by mortals lasts forever.” She looked up against the light-destroying portal. “Another good reason to end this.” Her eyes fell, back to Hotaru. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” Hotaru accepted Pluto’s offered hand and struggled to her feet. The gaijin offered her the polearm he’d pulled out of nowhere, and she stepped back, staring at the massive weapon — it had to be twice her height! “How am I supposed to use _that?_ ”

The gaijin shrugged. “For you, it should shrink to match.”

He offered it again and this time Hotaru reluctantly accepted it, almost falling over from the unbalanced weight. He was right — it shivered in her hands, then seemed to fall into itself until ... it was only half again her height.

A green gaijin in a purple costume began desperately waving his arms around. “Wait, wait! We’re just gonna let a little girl just ... what, chop off his head?”

The gray-skinned girl that had _destroyed_ Hotaru’s tormentor whirled about, lips pealing back from canines almost sharp enough to be fangs. “Beast Boy, not now! Weren’t you listening?”

Mars stepped up beside her and laid a hand on her shoulder as the gaijin jolted back, his face suddenly a little less green. Mars said, “It has to be done. Even Moon agrees, and she’s the one that can’t resist bringing home every lost puppy she finds, even if that puppy is the size of a truck with fangs and claws to match and breath that could knock you over at twenty paces.”

The gray-skinned girl turned to stare at Mars. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Moon was blushing furiously. “Hey, it wasn’t the puppy’s fault that it was a Hell Hound! And we found it a good home, even if ...”

Hotaru tuned out the rest of the conversation as she stared at the massive, naked, whirlwind-torn and bleeding _thing_ that had ruined her life ... turned her parents against her. Turned her into a _thing_ in their eyes. Tears again began rolling down her cheeks, fury burning in her chest, and she quietly slipped away from the rest of the crowd listening to Moon’s story.

Stopping a few yards away from the monster, her breath coming in shallow gasps, she raised the polearm high, not even noticing the skill with which she was handling it, or the dark glow surrounding its long blade ... and yelped when a hand landed on her shoulder. She twisted, stumbling, the polearm’s shaft swinging wide as her skill abandoned her, to find the gray-skinned young woman standing there staring down at her with red glowing eyes. Unconsciously she instantly shifted into a battle stance, legs spread with one slightly ahead of the other and the polearm held at a slant. “You won’t stop me!”

The woman spread her hands wide, palms out. “No, I won’t.”

“Raven — !”

Raven twisted her head to look back at the group behind them. “ _It needs to be done_ , Gar!” Turning back to Hotaru, she continued, “But before you send him back to Hell you need to let go of your hate.”

The polearm began to quiver as Hotaru’s hands shook with fury. “After what he did to us, you tell me not to hate? Because of him, my mother is — !”

“Fine.”

Hotaru froze at Raven’s one-word interruption. “What?”

“You’re mother’s fine. Or at least, she will be. My grandmother will never see her.”

“Your ... your grandmother?”

“The Daimakaicho of Niflheim ... Hell. But that’s not what your mother’s headed. Sure, she’s going to have to deal with her self-hatred for what she did to you. But though Heaven’s full of holier-than-thou, stick-up-the-ass, hidebound snobs, they really do care and they have the finest psychiatrists in existence.”

“But ... she’s _not_ in Hell? But she ... why ... ?”

“Why not, after the way she treated you? Because the words that’ll get ya sent ta Hell, more than any others, are ‘it’s not my fault’. She’d _finally_ accepted that what she did was terribly, horribly wrong, that _she_ was responsible, and was trying ta fix it when she died. So let go a’ the hate, and send Moloch back ta grandmother so she can use his treasonous ass like a chew toy while we deal with _that_.” She pointed up toward the portal still floating over the school.

“But ... but ... you’re a _demon_ — aren’t you?” Hotaru glanced down at Raven’s hooves, then up at the tiny white buds on her forehead above her solid red glowing eyes.

“I ... yes, I am.” Raven leaned down and whispered in Hotaru’s ear, “I’m a professional, don’t try it at home.”

Hotaru found herself giggling at the absurd comment ... and at the way the demon’s language was deteriorating every time she opened her mouth ... and felt something in her chest unclench. It was suddenly easier to breath — her mother was going to be fine.

It occurred to her that Raven hadn’t said anything about her _father_. After a moment’s consideration, she decided she was fine with that. Let him be thrown into Shugou Jigoku to have molten copper pumped up his ass until it poured out of his mouth for a hundred trillion years, so long as she never had to see him again. She certainly wasn’t going to be praying for _his_ early release!

Pushing thoughts of her father aside, she closed her eyes and focused on memories of her mother — decorating their home with her with pine and bamboo ornaments for New Year; picnicking together under the blossoming cherry trees; bringing her flowers on Mother’s Day ... memory after memory. She would light a lantern and dance for her mother when August brought Obon.

When she felt she was as calm — as _accepting_ — as she was going to get, she opened her eyes, looked up along her polearm to measure its length for the blow, and froze in shock at the sight of its blade glowing white shot through with strands of black.

She was yanked out of her shock when the massive bull-beast at her feet stirred with a groan. Hastily stepping back, she again eyed the length of the shaft, took another step back, took a deep breath as she raised the polearm’s blade up over the monster’s neck, and let the blade drop.

A blast of light and heat knocked her backwards, into someone’s arms. She hastily let go of the polearm’s shaft with one hand to rub at her eyes before staring with vision blurred by tears to find the horned head lying several feet from the whirlwind-shredded body, both collapsing into what looked like dust.

Her nightmare was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dante’s _Inferno_ has nothing on the Buddhists! They have seriously gruesome and varied punishments with set lengths, but family members can pray for those that end up there to get additional trials at set times. Hotaru has no problem leaving her father there getting molten copper pumped up his ass for the 106 trillion years being a pedophile calls for.


	23. The End of the Beginning

“Robin, call the Justice League, tell them _not_ to shut down the portal! That we need to handle it! Damn it, why didn’t I think to tell them before? Terra! You can shape rock as well as move it, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“Can you recognize and separate different types of rock mixed together, shape them around each other?”

“Yes, why!?”

“How much weight can you lift?”

“Tons, _why!?_ ”

“You’re going to shape a ritual circle and lift it, and us, up to the portal. I’ll tell you how ... no, too long. Robin, tell the Justice League we need a telepath, as fast as possible!”

Tenoh Haruka — Uranus (and didn’t she have mixed feelings about that!) — ignored the frantic orders Pluto was throwing around in unaccented English, her eyes fixed on a child that had suffered more than any child should. Hotaru ... but known to her in a previous life as Psykhe. The knowledge Haruka had gained from her memory crystal had been impressive — she could now speak three dead languages, one unspoken for almost three thousand years; list and recount the deeds of queens of the Crete-that-was going back centuries; draw a map of that now-vanished realm; and with practice become expert enough with sword and spear to maybe even satisfy Grandmother Ku Lon. But her _memories_ of that life were faded, disjointed. Michiru had told her hers were the same.

But present in memory after memory, brightening them by just her ever-present smile, cheerfully teasing her and Hali about their relationship, was Psykhe. In one tattered memory Uranus had overheard a conversation between the Queen and Princess Daria, and the Setsuna now shouting into Robin’s communicator had commented that it was as if Psykhe was deliberately acting against the dark inheritance of her House that had haunted them for generation after generation.

The child that had collapsed as soon as she had seen a bull’s head separated from its humanoid body — by her own blade — the child that had dropped her polearm and now lay shivering on the torn-up lawn, clutching Chibi-Moon while Raven crouched by her with a hand on her shoulder ... that child was _not_ the happy, laughing friend Uranus ... Haruka ... _Princess Malaina_ remembered.

_She will be_.

Uranus stepped over to the girl and dropped to her knees, laid a white-gloved hand on her head. “Psykhe, everything will be okay. My word on it as an Amazon.”

Raven’s head shot up. “I thought you’d refused to be an Amazon.”

Uranus shrugged. “I rejected most of the martial training because I didn’t need it —” She grimaced ... Grandmother Ku Lon was bound to bring it up again, and this time she’d have difficulty rejecting the offer because now it _was_ needed. But she brightened at the thought that she could rope _Michiru_ into it as well. “— and even Grandmother admits that a lot of their laws are as obsolete as the Type 97. But that doesn’t mean I rejected everything.”

Raven sighed, then looked down at the now-confused girl looking up at them. “A few decades ago an Amazon warrior swore to kill me. She chased me across half of China before following me to Japan. It took her over two years to finally get me.”

“ _Get_ you? But ...”

“You Senshi aren’t the only ones with memories of past lives. If an Amazon swears she’ll make sure you’re okay, she will if it kills her.”

Hotaru stared up at them for a moment, before whispering, “ _Am_ I a Senshi?” _Do I still belong somewhere?_

“Yes.” Everyone turned at the blunt reply, to find Pluto striding toward them. “That doesn’t mean you’ll be joining them — us — in the field unless you wish, and not until after years of training in any case. But we need your help one last time first, to deal with _that_.” She pointed up at the now wildly fluctuating deep-space darkness of the portal above them. “That has been leaking demons onto Earth for three thousand years, and now that you’re here and have the Silence Glaive we can close it _completely_.”

Hotaru stared up at the portal. Its fluctuations were getting worse, but demons were still pouring through. Taking a deep breath, she gently pulled herself loose from Chibi-Moon’s embrace and sat up. “What do I do?”

“Right now, you wait until — _There’s_ the men I need!”

/\

Raven had had to stomp on the anger snarling in the back of her mind when Pluto had interrupted, then had to stomp harder thanks to what the ancient woman had to say. How _dare_ she involve a child in their fight, especially one that had been abused as much as Hotaru!

_But ... three_ thousand _years!_ Raven had glanced over at Superman (eyes widening at the powerful magical protections she could sense interwoven into his black bodysuit), and the green, bald form of the Martian Manhunter as they landed on the torn-up lawn, then looked back up at the portal. Its deterioration was speeding up, if they did nothing it would collapse on its own. And go right on leaking demons into the territory around it. But ... _Three thousand years_.

She dropped her gaze to find Martian Manhunter with fingertips of one hand touching Pluto’s forehead and the other hand resting on Terra’s shoulder. After a moment Terra nodded. “I can do that.” Turning slightly, she raised her arms, spreading them wide (something Robin had suggested, so that others might think she needed arm motions to control rock). For a long moment nothing happened, then a _huge_ circle of lawn lifted as she raised her arms, pushed up by the rock underneath it. Raven heard gasps from the watching Senshi, and had to admit being impressed herself. Sure, the layer of rock was thinner than Terra’s usual platform, but that was still the largest single chunk of rock she’d ever seen Terra float since they’d first met.

Once free of the ground, the flat circle of rock tilted up to vertical then over, showering the lawn with chunks of dirt and sod falling away from what was now the bottom of the ... well, platform, really, Raven had to admit that Pluto’s idea was inspired. Especially when the demon flew up enough to look down on it and found ritual circles appearing indented into the smooth surface, a large central circle with eight more spaced all around it. The swirling lines and writing were thin, but recognizably a different type of rock that Terra must have pulled to the surface before she’d pulled the platform away from the ground.

Raven lowered herself back down to the ground and waited until J’on J’onzz pulled his hand away from Pluto’s forehead, then until after Pluto climbed onto the rock platform and looked over the multiple circles and nodded before hopping down. “Perfect. Now —”

“Pluto, what will be Hotaru’s part in the ritual?”

Pluto turned away from Superman to face the demonic Titan. “What?”

“We’re asking a child to take part in a ritual. She is not a tool. What will be her part? How dangerous will it be?”

“For her, not dangerous at all.” Pluto waved toward the platform, looked down at Hotaru. “You will be in the center circle, the focus of all the power the rest of us can give you. When you are _absolutely_ certain you can’t hold any more, you release it through the Silence Glaive at the portal, and we’re done — the circles we’ll standing in will do the rest. Do you think you can do that?”

The girl’s eyes were wide and she was clutching Chibi-Moon’s hand, but she nodded silently with a determination that Raven’s empathic sense said wasn’t entirely fake.

Pluto smiled warmly down at Hotaru, before turning again to Superman. “But the demons that have already come through may not know that their leader has been defeated and returned to Niflheim. They may try to interrupt the ritual. They _cannot_ succeed — that would be explosively catastrophic for everyone _but_ Hotaru.”

Superman nodded firmly. “The Justice League will see to it.”

“As will the Titans,” Robin agreed, echoed by a “bo-yah!” from Cyborg, the man-machine’s arm morphing into his sonic cannon.

“Count me in.” Everyone turned to find a young Japanese man dressed in tuxedo and top hat, his arm around Sailor Moon’s waist ... Tuxedo Mask.

“Then we’re ready,” Pluto said as she looked around. “All the Senshi and the defenders that can’t fly mount the platform ... Wait, we’re missing one. Where’s Venus?”

Everyone else looked around, and Moon summoned her communicator. Just as she was lifting it to her mouth, the growing growl of a motorcycle was heard and moments later the motorcycle and its two riders roared through the school gates. The man in front was anonymous under his helmet, but the blonde in the orange fuku was not. As soon as the motorcycle came to a stop Venus released her embrace of the driver and hopped off the seat. She looked around as the driver dismounted and took off his helmet, then grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss — intense enough that he dropped his helmet before his arms circled her waist and pulled her against him. After a moment she broke the clinch and pushed him away. “Thanks for everything, handsome. When this is all over give me a call.” Turning to face the pouts and wry smiles of her friends, she asked, “So what did I miss?”

Moon, Mercury and Pluto took turns quickly answering, but Raven didn’t listen. _Her_ attention was fixed on the young man that had brought Venus ... a very _familiar_ young man.

He too looked around, gaze pausing on the worst of the devastation, until his eyes met hers and he froze. “Raven, is that _you?_ What happened?”

Raven groaned, lifting one hand to cover her eyes as if her cousin would vanish if she couldn’t see him. “Norihide. I’m not going to have to worry about whatever assignments Grandmother’s planning on handing me, because your mother is going to dust off her Valkyrie training and _eviscerate_ me. Please tell me that Tamiko, at least, isn’t involved?”

Norihide laughed. “Yeah, that’s you. And no such luck, Tamiko and I were meeting some friends when the invasion started, when Venus and I headed here she was having fun delivering the smackdown to some demons threatening a tour group — though she was put out that I could only fit two on my bike. She’s really enjoying the opportunity to put her own Valkyrie training into practice. So how do I help?”

“Mama Urd and Auntie Skuld haven’t gone into any detail on what you kids can do. Can you fly?”

“No, but I have a distance attack — lightning, or at least it mimics lightning. Really effective against the supernatural and the infernal, though.” He smirked, his emotions blazing excitement mixed with bubbling amusement.

_Damn, no excuse to keep him out of it, and he knows it_. “How did you learn how effective you are against the supernatural? I imagine Auntie Bell will want to know.” She hid a grin as he paled, his undercurrent of amusement vanishing like so many popped bubbles, but others chuckled with a few winces thrown in (from the rueful sympathy she was picking up, Raven suspected thanks to memories of parental reactions when they outed themselves).

Pluto waved toward the portal, its fluctuations now almost strobe-like. “Enough humor, we’re running out of time. All Senshi and any defenders going along on the rock.”

There was a rush for the platform, Robin and the Senshi easily leaping onto it then helping Cyborg and Norihide clamber up. Raven scooped up Norihide’s motorcycle helmet from where he’d dropped it and tossed it to him. “As good as a mask, wear it.”

He grimaced but put it on.

The platform began to lift toward the portal, a sweating Terra crouched at the edge with her glowing hands pressed against the rock, just as they heard another shout: “Wait for me!” The pale-skinned, pink-haired form of Jinx ran through the front gate over to the platform and flipped up onto the stone, catching Robin’s hand on landing. (Chibi-Moon stared at the newest Titan’s pink hair swept up into two horns and started giggling as she reached up to finger the two sorta-cat-ears her own pink hair was shaped into.)

Raven felt something indefinable ease in the Titans’ leader. “You didn’t answer my all-call.”

“Were you worried about me? How sweet. I was busy when you called, decided it was faster to just run here than call you when I was clear.” She swept her gaze across the stone platform. “What’s the plan?”

As Robin filled her in and as the platform resumed rising toward the portal, Starfire, Raven, and the green eagle that was Beast Boy’s current form flew alongside, eyes searching for threats.

An unpleasant thought occurred to Raven, and she glanced down at the woman herding the Senshi into various circles. “Pluto, will you be able to close the portal while demons are coming through it?” From the way Pluto blanched to match the shocked anger she was abruptly radiating — and the presumed curse words she spat — the answer was no. (While Raven didn’t recognize the language the Senshi obviously did, and from _their_ shock those curses must have been potent.)

Raven took a deep breath. “Right. Not a problem. I’ll just go through and stop them and you close the gate behind me. I’ll find my own way out.” At Mars’s strangled gasp she gave her girlfriend as honest a smile as she could manage. “No choice, and I’m the best for the job. Besides, that’s Grandmother’s realm, I bet Mama Urd comes back with me.”

Mars clearly wanted to disagree, but Raven was right so she settled for a jerky nod. “Don’t take too long, I am _not_ going to explain to my sisters how their girls got mixed up in this alone.”

Raven’s smile froze, then eased at the round of chuckles and giggles. Mars had broken the growing tension nicely. So she settled for a chuckle of her own. “You’re _not_ encouraging me to hurry, you know.”

Then she noted that there were two people on the platform whose tension had _not_ eased, whose emotions were worry and a whirlpool of uncertain terror. Standing in the circle in the dead center of the platform, that all the other circles surrounded and fed into, Hotaru was staring up at the now wildly strobing empty blackness of the portal above them, her eyes wide, face white and stiff, her grip on the Silence Glaive white-knuckled, her determination fading quickly to be replaced by growing panic. Chili-Moon, standing silently beside her just outside Hotaru’s circle had her own gaze fixed on her friend, obviously concerned but uncertain what to say.

Raven hastily glanced up at the portal, than down at the patterns of vari-colored rock ... no magic yet infused those patterns, it was still safe. She dropped down next to Hotaru and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Do you know how reincarnation works?”

Hotaru managed to yank her attention down to Raven and jerkily shook her head.

“You don’t get memories of your past lives, thankfully, that fresh start is vital. But what you _do_ pass on is your personality. The princess you remember now, was she determined? Brave?”

Hotaru jerkily nodded.

“She passed that on, you just need to remember what you were. Understand?”

Hotaru nodded again, more naturally this time. Her grip on the Silence Glaive eased as she relaxed, her panic vanishing into growing determination. “Yes.”

“Good. See you when we’re done.”

Raven glanced over a Mars, gave her as confident a smile as she could managed, then lifted off from the platform now directly under the portal. She hovered several yards away for a few moments as demon after demon burst through to drop or fly away, dodging around the gray-skinned girl with back-glowing hands. When she had their timing down the black about her hand sprang forward into a round shield as she charged forward into the void just after the latest demon to come through.

For a split-second, cold like she’d never felt pierced through her, became her entire world as all other sensation vanished along with sight and sound. Then the shock of something hammering into her shield shook her from fists to toes ... hooves. Yes, her soul-energy was definitely no longer soaking up inertia—perhaps because as a full demon she was more strongly connected to the demonic power of her soul? For whatever reason, if she couldn’t learn how to overcome that it was going to be a problem.

The shock of the impact had been off-center enough to set her tumbling, and she shot out of the other side of the portal and rolled along the floor, a flailing ball that knocked over what she assumed were the next few demons in line. Even as she desperately sucked air back into her lungs she levered off the cat-like demon that had fallen on her. She struggled to her feet, fighting to push her soul-form back out to shield her arms and hoping the shock of her entry would make the recoiling mob of mixed human-like, animalistic and monstrous demons hesitate long enough for her to recover her bearings.

Then a burst of _very_ familiar green energy bolts hammered into the floor in a line between her and the mob. Along with all the other demons, Raven twisted to stare up at the orange-skinned hero hovering in the air above the now-coruscating portal. “Starfire?! What are you _doing_ here?”

“I could not let closest female friend Raven fight alone,” her alien friend replied, her eyes and hands glowing green. “Now let us teach these rapists and torturers a _lesson_ to take with them into their next life.”

Raven turned back around, her hands burning black to match her friend’s green, two new eyes opening and the vision of all four eyes going crimson as her own snarling hatred responded to Starfire’s burning righteous anger. Just like back at her Aunt Bell’s home she _howled_ , and this time she didn’t even try to beat back the need to destroy exploding through her as the two Titans charged straight at the mob.

/\

Hotaru had been in trouble before Raven had dropped down to give her a few last words of wisdom, rapidly descending into a full-blown meltdown — she still wished that Pluto hadn’t said what she’d said about everyone _else_ dying if she failed.

But the demon that didn't act like a demon had been right, _Psykhe_ had led a very different life. Oh, she hadn’t had it _easy_ , all too many Cretans had only seen her House’s descent from Death and forgot that Rebirth was the flip side of the coin. The impact of that link to Death on the personalities of those of her House hadn’t helped.

But that princess hadn’t had a father that raped her with her mother’s knowledge.

Hotaru shook off the black memories that threatened to overwhelm her, focusing on Psykhe’s instead. That princess had been determined not to turn into a silent, withdrawn, shadow of herself, and through sheer determination she hadn’t — however much the shadows had pulled at her, she had remained open, friendly, cheerful ... _happy_. And for _courage!_ ... Hotaru remembered the first time Psykhe had walked out onto the warm amphitheater sand with the other princesses wearing nothing but a loincloth, to dance with the bulls in honor of the gods. She had been almost overwhelmed by terror then, too, but had beaten it down. (She’d performed flawlessly as well, as she had every time since. Even the misstep that had ended up killing her hadn’t been her fault — a slip on a stone missed by those that combed the sand, kicked up by a bull in their dance.)

Now as the platform drew near the portal and Raven and her orange-skinned teammate vanished into it, Hotaru drew on that memory of Psykhe’s first Dance, what it had felt like to accept the fear, push through ... to _move_. She took a deep breath and raised the Silence Glaive, waiting for the flood.

It came.

Pluto shouted, “Everyone but Sat — everyone but Psykhe, _now!_ ” Every Senshi except Chibi-Moon, standing inside their own circles, turned to face her in the center and unleashed their attacks — golden chain, ice spear, water blast, lightning stabbing down, golden ball of light ... all except Moon, who started some kind of weird dance.

But the circles each Senshi stood in lit up, and those attacks never reached her. They seemed to fade away, both to sight and somehow into an impossible distance, and her own circle lit up. It shone so brightly that she couldn’t see through it, though when she looked up she could see the strobing dark of the portal perfectly. And with that light came power, pouring into her from all sides. It flowed through her, down her arms, through her hands into the Silence Glaive and the uplifted blade at the end of the shaft lit up in turn, as bright as the circle around her ... a light she could somehow see through, the collapsing portal unobscured.

The pressure of that power rose higher and higher, a rising tide ripping at a dike, and she fought to hold that dike together, pushing it higher. Her focus narrowed until all she could see was the glowing blade and the portal strobing ever faster to the point that it was almost a solid black once again. She didn’t even notice when Supergirl’s back-clad form passed by only a few yards above her, the last Argoan’s red-glowing heat vision lancing out at unseen targets. In the end she didn’t even see the portal, not really, as memories played across the field of night the portal provided ... but not her memories.

The memories of seven Cretan princesses were faded, disjointed, hazy ... like an old-time movie reel that had been played too many times, spliced back together when it snapped — bull dancing, Greek princes feted at festivals and taken to bed (sometimes singly, sometimes shared with one or more of her friends), training in the martial arts and the history of their Houses, prank wars and games, all remembered fondly if distantly.

The _eighth_ princess’s memories were very different — _her_ memories, though as ancient as the others, were as fresh as the time they’d happened. She was older than the others, amused at their antics and faintly envious of their close friendship. But only faintly envious because she had her soulmate, the Queen. Long nights in a shared bed, and not only for pleasure but hours of talking over their shared dream ... planning the civilizing of the barbarous Greek city-states and their incorporation into partnership with Crete’s growing sphere of influence, the mainlanders lending their strength to the eventual domination of the eastern Mediterranean and beyond. Then the shock of the betrayal by the sister she loved, the helpless anger at the death of their dreams and the need for her to remain behind as her lover and Queen took seven princesses and one Greek prince to pit themselves against the demonic hordes pouring through the portal Pandora’s treason had opened. And finally the centuries of unending loneliness as the seven princesses and one prince were reborn over and over, but never as they had been ... and never the other half of her soul.

Finally, as Hotaru’s mental dike crumbled at last under the weight of the power tearing at it and the eye-tearing darkness of the portal again turned solid, when she shrieked as she let the dike collapse and pour all that accumulated power into the perverted hole in space above her in one massive blinding streak of light, the tears streaming down her cheeks weren’t just from the gut-wrenching pain of what felt like her soul ripping in half and the mental strain from the effort of maintaining that dike.

The others shouted in shock as the portal exploded in a blaze of glory and an exultant roar that seemed to fill the universe. But Hotaru simply collapsed yet again, and couldn’t tell her only friend that rushed to embrace her that this time her tears were for a woman that she’d never met before that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm done explaining why chapters take so long, you can just assume that the answer is "Life." At this point, a chapter for the aftermath and then a probably short epilogue and this story is done.
> 
> The Type 97 Haruka describes as obsolete was a Japanese motorcycle used during WWII, adapted from a Harley Davidson design but built with all-Japanese parts.


	24. Not Looking Before You Leap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only nine days since my last chapter! Well, since my last chapter for _any_ of my stories, it's been three months for this one. Oops. I've decided to go back to chapter lengths between 1,500 and 2,000 words except for major blowouts. Leaving aside holidays and vacations I ought to be able to get out one a week, and at worst one every two weeks should be eminently doable. But I'm hoping that the shorter length and so faster updating will help motivate me to somehow make more time for writing. So here's the first, and if my hopes pan out there should be another for this story before the end of the month.

Pluto collapsed as the stone platform the Senshi and their defenders were standing on began to slowly lower towards the ground. As she lay there gasping for breath and trying to gather the energy needed to sit up, she flopped her head to one side ... yup, Mars and Mercury — the only other Senshi she could see — were in the same shape she was. Thankfully, she could hear the thunder of Cyborg’s sonic cannon and the crackling of the lightning thrown around by the young man that had given Venus a ride, so the exhausted Senshi had protection from whatever demons turned earth spirits weren’t running away. From the way the platform was wobbling as it dropped, that was definitely a good thing.

The emerald-haired woman twisted around so she could look towards the center, to find Hotaru again in Chibi-Moon’s arms, distraught from the way she was clutching at her friend but apparently fine. _Good, Raven won’t do her best to eviscerate me ... probably. But what are we going to do with her?_

She only realized she’d spoken aloud when a weary chuckle came from her other side. Uranus said, “Michiru and I will be taking her in.” The pronouncement was followed by the sound of a slap and a soft “Ow!”

“You’re supposed to talk to your lover before you say things like that.” Pluto rolled over so she could see behind her, to find Uranus and Neptune sitting up but leaning against each other.

“But Michiru, it’s Psykhe!” Uranus whined, rubbing a cheek.

“I’m not disagreeing, but you’re still supposed to talk to me. And our mothers might have something to say about it.”

“So we move out. We were talking of doing that, anyway.”

“You’re rather young for that.” The two looked across the circle, and Pluto levered herself up so she could do the same. Her eyes widened at the sight of her princess up on her knees. Moon was holding her head like it hurt, but the ancient immortal was impressed that she’d managed that much without help.

That princess’s eyes met hers, and her heart sank when she saw the impish grin that blossomed on Moon’s face in spite of her obvious pain ... that particular expression had never boded well for her target.

Her fears were immediately confirmed when Moon continued, “That’s why Pluto will be moving in with you.”

“What!”

All three had managed a decent level of volume in spite of their exhaustion, and Moon winced. “Easy,” she whimpered, then looked over at the lovers. “You’ll have an easier time with Child Services if Pluto shares your home, and I’m sure she’ll give you space to look after Ho — Psykhe.”

“And I will be living there as well, of course.” Everyone twisted to see the gnomish former Amazon elder standing on the rim of the stone platform as it settled the last few feet to the lawn. She gazed back with an imperturbable expression, but thanks to Pluto’s ability to read people at a glance she could see the amusement bubbling away beneath the surface. Then the Elder focused her gaze on her great-great-granddaughter and her lover. “You two have a great deal of training ahead of you if you intend to take your new responsibilities seriously.”

Uranus groaned (though there was an oddly self-satisfied edge to it) and Neptune paled, but Pluto sighed with relief. “Well, if Elder Ku Lon will be there, I am sure that will satisfied their parents, so —”

“No, you’re still moving in with them,” Moon insisted, her impish grin broadening.

“But … but …”

“Consider it a royal command from your princess.” Moon’s grin softened into a gentle smile. “I think you have been too long alone, even when you’ve been with us in our past lives.” She waited until Pluto nodded, then turned to look toward the school as her smile vanished. “And now, there’s still work for us all here. Get Psykhe to safety, help hunt down what you can of the invaders still left. I’m headed back to help with the wounded in the school. Once things are as settled as they can be, we’ll gather back at ...” She hesitated, glanced at Mars. “ ... back at the temple where Raven’s aunt lives. We have a rescue to plan.”

“You can do that now.” They looked up at the sight of the black-and-silver-clad Superman dropping toward them from above; a gaijin woman dressed in a one-piece swimsuit, fishnet stockings, and a tuxedo and wearing a top hat floating down beside him — Zatanna, Pluto remembered after searching her memory of Justice League members for a moment. The pair landed on the now-grounded platform and looked around. Superman continued in his perfect Japanese, “I believe you have done enough, and from the looks of you you’re done anyway. It’s time for you to stand down.”

“No, we can still help!” Moon insisted, struggling wearily to her feet.

Superman looked her over (Pluto suspecting he was seeing more than the obvious), then nodded toward the school. “If you can walk to the school, then I’ll agree.”

Moon jerked a nod, turned and tried to step down from the platform, instantly stumbled, and only Superman’s quick catch prevented her from face-planting into the torn up lawn.

He gently set the furiously blushing Senshi back on her feet. “You’ve done your part closing the portal. The wounded are already being transported to the nearest hospitals, the last of the invaders that haven’t already managed to flee are being hunted down by the allies you brought in to help, all that’ll be left soon is the clean up. And as exhausted as you are, that could actually be dangerous.” He waited until Moon reluctantly nodded, then lifted her back onto the platform and switched to English. “Terra, are you able to fly them where they need to go, or do I need to carry this?”

The blonde straightened from where she’d been sitting slumped over. “Whatever they were doing was messing with my control of the rock, that’s all. Now that it’s over and I’ve caught my breath, I’m good.”

“Great!” Robin jumped off the platform. “Once you get them delivered come back, we’ll need your ability to shape rock. The rest of the Titans with me.” In Japanese: “Senshi, we’ll join you once the clean up’s done and you’ve had some sleep to plan that rescue.” The rest of the Titans, Ku Lon, and Norihide joined him (Jinx earning some rolled eyes by doing a flip as she dismounted), and Terra again knelt and placed her hands on the rocky surface.

Before they could fly away Pluto looked around, but as she expected Constantine had vanished. She doubted she’d see him again before he showed up to claim the reward she’d impulsively offered. And he would. _Well, it_ has _been awhile, and at least he knows his way around a woman’s body_.

As the platform began to rise into the air, Zatanna jumped onboard. In heavily accented Japanese, she said, “I have a few questions.” She sat cross-legged next to Pluto and nodded toward the huddled pair in the the center. “Are you recruiting child soldiers now?”

Before Pluto could come up with an answer, Moon spoke up. “We try to keep Chibi-Moon out of the more dangerous missions, but sometimes she _is_ the mission. This time, that was her school.”

She hesitated, and Pluto smoothly stepped in. “And Psykhe is an Old Soul that just Awoke.”

“Ah.” Zatanna nodded her acceptance of the explanation, then as they passed underneath it looked up at the empty space where the portal had been spewing demons turned nature spirits minutes before. She spoke one of her indecipherable incantations, and frowned thoughtfully at whatever the result was visible only to her. “So, consider me a representative for the Justice League’s mystical contingent. We followed your order to hold off on closing the portal because this is your home ground, but we’d like to know why. That extra time allowed quite a few more demons to come through.”

Pluto shrugged. “That portal has been open a crack, letting demons slip through, for four millennia. Psykhe’s Awakening gave us the opportunity to close it completely, but _we_ had to be the ones to perform the ritual.”

“So this wasn’t just a bid for immortality?”

“Immortality?” It was Pluto’s turn to frown, in confusion. “I’m already immortal.”

“You are? That explains a few things. I’d wondered how such a small band of demon hunters could go on generation after generation, longstanding institutions usually need more members. But if you were always around, recruiting new members to replace those that die or retire ...” She shrugged. “You’ll have to tell us how that happened, and where you’re originally from — it certainly isn’t Japan.

“But if you were the only immortal before, you aren’t now. You didn’t notice? I don’t know whether to envy or feel sorry for you.” She grinned at Pluto’s deepening confusion. “All of your lives are now tied to that portal. So long as any of you live, it will remain closed … and so long as it remains closed you will all live.”

Pluto’s jaw dropped, and Zatanna laughed as she rose to her feet and looked around at the stunned listeners. “Welcome to the association of immortal mortals. It’s a rather exclusive club, but be careful — some of its members ... okay, _most_ of its members ... are more than a little squirrelly. A _really_ long life seems to do that.

“And now I need to get back to helping with the clean-up.” She called out another of her gibberish spells, and the other Senshi shouted in surprise as their hair was whipped around by the suddenly strengthened breeze that lifted Zatanna up and carried her away.


	25. Leaving on a Broomstick

Mars could _not_ stay still. She was beyond exhausted into a zone where everything looked hazy and voices sounded strange, buzzing on stim drinks. After the effort of closing the breach and then waiting for hours as the Justice League and the Titans hunted down the last invaders they could find and returned them to the nonexistent mercy of Raven’s grandmother she should be flat on her back and unable to move. That must have been Superman’s expectation when he ordered her and the rest of the Senshi to stand down before exhaustion-fueled carelessness killed them ... or worse, someone else. Certainly, that was what had happened for the rest of the Senshi — when everyone had proven too punch-drunk for planning they’d accepted Belldandy’s offer of blankets and futons (Moon and Tuxedo Mask’s futons next to each other, of course, holding hands even as they slept). Everyone except Chibi-Moon that is, since she hadn’t been part of the ritual, and she was sitting next to her sleeping friend.

But for Mars, instead she couldn’t _stop_ moving, pacing the lawn underneath the portal to Raven’s childhood home, the looping memory of her last sight of her girlfriend flying into a portal to Hell with Starfire right on her heels before her mind’s eye. Not even the holy peace the portal above her radiated could calm her ... she didn’t want to be calm, if she calmed she’d collapse and not wake up for hours.

In an attempt to distract herself, she thought about Zatanna’s bombshell. Immortal ... they were _all_ immortal now. (Except Chibi-Usa, maybe, and who knew how long until the blonde spore gained her own mortality?) Mars didn’t know what it had come as such a shock — they’d visited their counterparts ruling Crystal Tokyo in the thirtieth century, and the most likely way for those counterparts to get to that era was to just live long enough — but it had. _At least Raven won’t have to worry about me dying of old age on her_.

“Here they come.”

At Belldandy’s statement she looked up to see Heaven’s Valkyrie sweeping towards them in a ‘V’ formation on their battle brooms. (She’d found the concept of ‘battle brooms’ immensely amusing, even considering how stressed she’d been at the tail end of her life as Akane when she’d been training for her suicide run to rescue Ranma. After seeing the performance the Valkyrie got out of them, that was no longer the case.) As they got closer she could see that a number of those brooms were carrying several riders, some because they’d lost their brooms and some injured and being held in their seat by other riders. The Valkyrie might be Asgard’s elite warriors, but the invaders had still gotten in some lucky hits.

Mars wondered how the Furies had done. From what little she’d learned about them (mainly from Raven) they weren’t as fast or as durable as the Valkyries, being embodied mortal souls between lives instead of infernal beings, but thanks to their wings they were more maneuverable, just as highly trained, and even less killable.

As they approached the Valkyrie shifted their formation into double lines, dropping to disappear through the portal like an assembly line. Except for the last, Lind, who instead dropped to land beside Belldandy — someone Mars was _very_ glad to see. The Valkyrie’s commander’s lips tightened. “Is there a reason you’re still awake?”

“It’s Raven, and Starfire. They had to go through the portal, to bottle it up so we could close it. We need to plan a rescue.”

Lind had stiffened at her daughter’s name, but relaxed again as Mars continued and by the time she was finished was shaking her head. “No, we don’t. Hild didn’t give Asgard the details, but she was expecting a coup attempt using the breakout as a distraction. Urd and half the Furies stayed behind to help deal with it. Urd won’t allow anything to happen to our daughter or her friend, I expect Raven and Starfire just got caught up in the aftermath. But I’ll go check.”

She hopped back on her broom and moments later vanished through the portal. In less than a minute she was back, Hild (an apparent teenager, this time, dressed incongruously like an American cowgirl right down to the chaps, Stetson, and six-guns on her hips) right behind her on a high-tech broom, followed by Urd swooping through with white and black wings spread, then —

“Raven!” Mars was bouncing since she couldn’t fly, but that only made a split-second difference in how long it took Raven to slam into her, wrapping her in a hug strong enough to make her ribs creak, knocking her off her feet to send the pair rolling across the lawn. But Mars didn’t care. The pair came to a stop with her on top, and she shifted her arms up underneath Raven’s shoulders, her lips eagerly pressed to her girlfriend’s, feeling Raven’s horn buds softly brushing against her forehead as tears ran across her cheeks and dripped down onto Raven’s gray skin.

When she finally, reluctantly pulled away to better see Raven’s face, hers weren’t the only damp eyes. Raven whispered, “You were really that worried about me?”

“This is the second time I’ve watched you vanish into Hell, of course I was worried!” Then Mars frowned as what she was seeing completely registered ... the pupils of Raven’s also-moist eyes were almost pinpricks.

Mars was sure that there were any number of possible causes for that, and she had no idea how Raven being a demon might decrease or increase that number, but if her girlfriend had been mortal the cause would be obvious. “Raven, are you drugged?”

“Yup! I’m on some _good_ stuff!” Raven caroled, suddenly grinning. Then her smile turned gentle. “But I might not need it long, with this memory to help. I think that’s the best greeting you’ve ever given me, in two lives.”

Mars stood up, then offered a hand to Raven to help her to her feet ... well, hooves. But her hands were shaking, she was suddenly lightheaded, and it was Starfire’s turn to keep the pair from tumbling back down onto the lawn. As she steadied them, the hovering alien asked, “Friend Mars, are you injured?”

“Nothing a few days sleep won’t take care of, now that Raven’s back. Uh ... I’m happy to see you’re all right, too,” Mars hastened to add, afraid she’d given offense with the way she’d ignored Raven’s teammate.

But Starfire merely smiled. “I can see who you first ... ‘have eyes for’? But that is as it should be.”

Mars blushed, making Starfire giggle. Ignoring the first of the Senshi to stumble out of the temple, rubbing their eyes and yawning, she turned to face Urd and Hild. Doing her best to keep her voice level (these were Raven’s beloved mother and grandmother, as well as the commander of the Furies and _daimakaicho of Niflheim_ , after all), she asked, “So, drugs?”

Urd blushed, but Hild just shrugged. “Infernal magic, not drugs, though the effect is much the same.” She paused for a moment, then sighed again and rubbed at her face, her shoulders slumping. “When Raven and Starfire came through the portal, Urd and I had already dealt with the ringleaders of the attempted coup and the Furies that stayed behind had broken their followers’ resistance. And Moloch had the most powerful of his supporters follow him first, so all that was left there were the dregs. We were at the mopping up stage, but Raven ... completely cut loose. She cast aside all restraint on her anger, or even direction. That was fine as long as there were any Canaanite minions still in sight, but once they were all dealt with ... it took both me and Urd working together to subdue her without injury.”

Mars’ eyes had widened as Hild’s explanation progressed, and now she dropped her gaze to Raven to find her girlfriend staring intently at the lawn — if the young demon had still had feet, she would have been tracing a toe through the grass. Mars reached under Raven’s chin to tilt her head up. “Raven, you’re really all right?”

Raven was blushing furiously, but she forced a smile. “Yeah, Mom and Grandmother outrank me enough that they could be gentle. But I’m still powerful enough that I’m gonna need some limiters when it’s safe for me to come home.”

“Safe,” Mars repeated, her heart clenching. If Raven meant what she feared —

“Yeah, Grandmother says I’m gonna need a few months a’ ... well, anger management lessons, demon-style ... before I’ll be safe around anything as breakable as mortals.” She abruptly pulled Mars into a rib-creaking hug. Burying her face against Mars’ shoulder, she whispered, “If I lost control and ... and hurt you, I’d ...”

Mars sighed and returned the embrace. “I know — believe me, I know _all_ about having a temper. Though yours is worse than mine, now.” Raven’s laugh was watery but sincere, and Mars continued, “However long it takes, I’ll be waiting. Just don’t make me have to _finally_ storm Hell to get you out.”

The pair broke apart and looked around, and blushed again at the smiles and grins of those around them. While they’d been caught up with each other the rest of the Titans had arrived, Zatanna again with them, and the young man that had delivered Venus — Norihide, Raven had said? — along with a younger girl obviously his sister whose name Raven had also mentioned but Mars couldn’t remember. (She was definitely Norihide’s sister, from the way she was rolling her eyes at the way the Senshi of Love was sidled up against her brother.)

Beast Boy shifting into a wolf and howling didn’t make Mars and Raven’s embarrassment any less, even when Terra boxed his ears.

Speaking in the Japanese they’d been using, Robin said, “To make it official, you will be off Earth for several months, and when you return will be joining the Senshi?”

‘Uhhh …” Raven hesitated, then sighed. “I don’t know, that’ll be up to Grandmother.” She hastily explained the deal she’d made to be allowed to return from Niflheim with what she’d learned about Moloch’s plan to the increasingly horrified Titans and Senshi.

When she was done Mars whirled toward the Daimakaicho, hands curling into fists. _I don’t care how powerful she is, she ... she ..._

She yelped when a hand landed on her shoulder — somehow, Urd was right behind her. The former Norn leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Calm yourself. Your anger is feeding Raven’s; enough and not even my and Mother’s restraints will hold.” Straightening, she added loud enough for everyone to hear, “Besides, it’s for her own protection.”

At Urd’s warning, Mars choked on the epic rant she’d been just about to let loose. Instead she turned to face the commander of the Furies behind her, literally shaking with the effort to fight down her fury. Through gritted teeth she demanded, “ _How?_ ”

“As a free agent with family ties to both Asgard and Niflheim, she and those around her are in danger. As Hild’s subordinate as well as her granddaughter — and my daughter — she has added protection from those that would use her in both camps.”

“The middle of the road is for yellow lines and dead armadillos.”

Everyone turned to stare at Tuxedo Mask. “Where did you get _that_ from?” Mars asked, voice still strained but now because she was fighting down giggles as her anger was washed away by a flood of incredulous hilarity.

Tuxedo Mask shrugged. “I got it from a college friend from Texas. I have no idea where _he_ got it from.” He grinned. “Fits, though, doesn’t it?”

Her giggles broke free, and a visibly relaxing Raven laughed. “Did he wear a cowboy hat and have spurs on his boots?”

“No, he wore the same clothes as everyone else.” He paused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “He did have a cowboy hat and spurs hanging on his wall, now that I think about it.”

Now everyone was laughing, as much from relief as anything else. As the laughter died down, a greatly relaxed Mars turned to Hild. Ignoring the way Raven instantly tensed up, she asked, “So once Raven is safe for mortals, what will her first assignment be?”

Hild’s smile sent shivers down more than one spine. “To hunt down the traitors that escaped here, whichever ones you Senshi haven’t found first. After that ... my minions have gotten lazy, over the last century. Earth’s exploding population has let them settle for the easy pickings, and the growing secularization has made those pickings even easier. After _this_ , though — an outright demonic invasion — I expect something of a religious revival worldwide.” Her smile turned even more dark. “And with slimmer pickings I’ll need a Sheriff, to make sure my minions play by the rules — _my_ rules.” Then in the blink of an eye all hint of darkness vanished, leaving to all appearances a perky teenage cowgirl. “And of course my Sheriff will need deputies, and those willing to join her posse from time to time.”

She glanced around at the Senshi and Titans and giggled at the wide eyes and dropped jaws, then looked over at Zatanna and grinned impishly. “So, any questions, or did I cover everything?”

The sometimes stage magician shook off her own surprise, and replied, “No questions, you’ve answered the Justice League’s concerns and then some.”

“And you actually believe me?”

Zatanna’s gaze flicked to Urd and Raven, then back to Hild. “I think under these circumstances, yes.” _And with this audience_ , went unspoken.

“Oh, goodie!” Hild clapped her hands like a child half or less her apparent age, then sobered. “Raven, it’s time to leave. By now Mara will have your old room ready with the additional shielding, we need to get you back before our restraints fail.”

Raven nodded, hesitated, glanced around, then cupped Mars’s cheeks and pulled her down into a deep kiss that left the Senshi of Fire panting. She whispered, “Just a few months. Then we’ll have years ... decades.”

“Centuries,” Mars agreed. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Raven reluctantly broke the embrace, then quickly darted from Titan to Titan, giving each bemused friend (and even Jinx) a farewell hug. She waved goodbye to the Senshi, Belldandy, and the Norn of the Present's children, then floated up with Mama Lind and Mama Urd on each side to vanish through the portal, followed by Hild.

Mars stared up at the divine portal, and suddenly found herself swaying on her feet. As she started to collapse Tuxedo Mask was by her side, sweeping her off her feet into a bridal carry. “I think it’s time we put you to bed.”

Mars hummed her agreement, and snuggled against his warm chest ... Usagi was a lucky woman, if Rei didn’t have Raven she might have been jealous.

She was asleep before they reached the temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, another chapter right away. After doing two chapters for _The Unexpected Hobbit_ in a row, I decided this story deserved a little catch-up. So a _Hobbit_ chapter next, then an epilogue to put this story to bed.
> 
> The chapter title is a play on John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane." That song doesn't _quite_ fit, but close enough.


	26. Swimmin' in the Sea

Raven stretched languorously in her beach chair in spite of the weight half on her, luxuriating in the sensation of the warm sun.

It had been a long few months as she fought for control of the demonic fury burning in her core, but her grandmother, grandfather, and mothers all agreed that she was finally the master of that passion rather than its victim ... or its rider, rather; as Mama Mara had told her that day in Auntie Bell and Uncle Keiichi’s home, the trick was to direct that fury rather than repress it. And the fight to learn to control her ability to shapeshift had been equally frustrating; in fact, she suspected her mothers had used her frustration with her long lack of progress to fuel the anger she had then had to learn to placate and direct. Certainly permitting her access to the mirror Grandfather had long ago given her for her birthday, in which she could watch the _Senshi_ hunt her lawful prey had been equally frustrating. The ability to watch Rei living her daily life had more than made up for that frustration, though, and along with the letters the pair exchanged through Belldandy and Skuld had certainly provided a powerful motivation for the newly-minted demon.

And now, as she watched the beach party Usagi and Skuld had decided to throw to celebrate her return, she could feel that fury contentedly waiting; it knew that soon enough the party would be over and the _hunt_ would begin. And what a party it was — the Senshi and their families (including a Hotaru looking — and ‘feeling’ to Raven’s empathic sense — much better since the day of the invasion and her parents’ deaths, if still shaky and always only a few paces away from Chibi-Usa); Nabiki, Kasumi, and Nodoka; Raven’s mothers; Auntie Bell and Uncle Keiichi and their family (apparently Minako’s one date with Norihide and then its sequels were showing all the signs of becoming something more serious, while Tamiko had started hanging out with Ami and Makoto to offer her sympathies) ... it was all a bit much. And Raven didn’t want to think how much it must have cost Setsuna to arrange for the public beach _Ranma_ had first visited with the Tendos during the Phoenix Pill mess (something that Nabiki or Kasumi must have suggested, making Raven go misty-eyed when she recognized the place) to be _completely_ empty.

There were even some party crashers! Just as everyone had finished gathering, several clear spheres had appeared out of thin air and disgorged their passengers before flying away to the east and fading out of sight. It turned out the spheres were time-traveling devices built and operated by some superhero group from the 30th century that knew Superman somehow, but the passengers had been the Senshi of the future ... including, to the shock of their younger counterparts, grown-up versions of Chibi-Usa, Sailor _Saturn_ , and _Raven!_ (Though Raven noticed that _Mama Urd_ wasn’t all that surprised, though the Fury commander had tried to hide it ... there would be questions later.)

It seemed Saturn and Chibi-Usa’s own adult counterparts made themselves scarce after Chibi-Usa's birth, to the extent that her parents arranged for a powerful charm to be cast on their daughter preventing her from remembering any mention of them in the histories she studied, so that she wouldn’t be able to bring knowledge of her own history into the past ... and she had just kept quiet about her ‘Aunt Raven’ until after the ‘origin story’ (to use the infuriating, smirking _spore_ ’s terminology). They’d taken their young counterparts aside for a few moments’ private conversation, and whatever they’d said had put a glowing smile on Hotaru’s face that had everyone else smiling back.

Now Raven contentedly watched the hilarious ‘future vs. present’ (or ‘present vs. past’, depending on your point of view) volley ball game that had sucked in most of the Senshi, present and future, along with half the Titans, with Setsuna and Rei’s grandfather pretending to referee … ‘hilarious’ because it was a ‘no powers allowed’ battle, and watching everyone concerned struggle not to use powers that had were second nature was _highly_ entertaining. It didn’t help that Setsuna had only recently modified the original spell work that allowed her reincarnated princesses to become Senshi to make those their permanent forms, with only the wardrobe switching now. Already, Setsuna had brought out two replacement balls, one to replace a ball Ami had _literally_ spiked with an ice spear as it was on its way out of bounds and another after Starfire fed some of her starbolt power into her fists just as she was returning a serve and blew tiny leather shreds all over her teammates.

Raven’s eyes were especially drawn to her own counterpart. The future Raven was the same height (damn it!), and in all other ways could have been a carbon copy of her much younger demonic self, except for two things. First was that her horn buds had grown into a set of ram-like horns that swept up to curl around her ears, their tips almost touching skin at the hinges of her jaw.

And the other was picked up by Raven’s empathic sense, the oddest feeling of serene violence, as if that older Raven were a bomb ready to go off at any moment ... but only if she judged the moment right.

The weight half on her shifted as her lover sharing the beach chair twisted slightly. Raven gasped as the sensation of skin against skin of their almost-nude bodies sparked memories of the exploration of the night before, though _that_ skin-against-skin had quickly become well-lubricated by sweat. She desperately tried to force the memories aside before their effect on her became obvious. (The two-handkerchiefs-and-some-dental-floss they were wearing wouldn’t hide anything.) Her attempt wasn’t helped by her lover whispering in her ear.

“Ogling other girls already? It’s been less than a day.” Rei pushed herself up enough that Raven could see her grin ... And Rei could see her fiery blush.

“I was looking at _me!_ ” Raven quickly asserted, then winced at how weirdly narcissistic that sounded. And she _definitely_ wasn’t going to mention ogling boys — (Aqualad!) — any time soon.

But Rei just laughed, glancing back over her shoulder. “You’re quite a looker aren’t you? Those thousand years were good to you. But I think I prefer _this_.” She turned back, running one hand along the ivory skin of Raven’s arm and shoulder, up into her fiery red hair. She leaned down and Raven’s lips parted slightly in anticipation of the coming contact ... and the overloaded beach chair collapsed underneath them. They yelped as they landed in a tangle of limbs, lips jammed together but not exactly as they’d planned, _both_ now blushing as laughter swept along the beach.

Urd broke off her conversation with all the other mothers. (From the smirks, glances, and laughter not to mention the amusement they were radiating; Raven was darkly certain they were exchanging embarrassing stories — she suspected about raising teenagers, from the horror on Haruka’s face and that Michiru was radiating even if she was too much her mother’s daughter to show it.) Stepping over to the groaning pair, Urd reached down as her angel manifested. World of Elegance hovered above her mistress, ostentatiously ignoring Raven and Rei’s glares to silently but clearly laugh at the pair. Raven suppressed her usual twinge of guilt at the sight of World of Elegance — the black of the swirling mix of black and white over the angel’s skin had slowly expanded over the years since Urd’s ‘fall’, until it now covered as much as two-thirds of the angel’s form. It was a development that World of Elegance faced with a serene lack of concern, though Raven had caught an occasional flash of unhappy resignation from Mama Urd. She didn’t ask.

“I know you weren’t getting much tanning done anyway, draped all over each other like that,” Urd said as she pulled them to their feet, “but really! There _are_ children present! By the way, you’re showing.”

The young women hastily tucked their breasts back into their handkerchiefs-and-dental-floss tops. Raven felt as if her hair ought to spontaneously combust into _real_ flames from her burning cheeks, and from Rei’s own radiating intense mortification and beet-red cheeks she must have felt the same.

Haruka gratefully broke away from the mothers’ gathering, pulling Michiru along with her. “Come on, you two, you can pretend to tan any time, that’s what you have yards and rooftops for. We’re on a beach!” Leaning close, she whispered, “Besides, in the water you can do all sorts of interesting things with your hands that no one can see, and this late in the year the water’s temperature is a perfect excuse for your physical reactions.”

Raven was actually going lightheaded, and if she was anything like Rei her blush had actually spread down her neck and across the top of her breasts. “Really?” she squeaked, glancing at Michiru.

Her sister-in-spirit (if not genetically, after Ranma’s rebirth in Akane’s infant body) was also blushing, if not as badly as Raven and Rei, but nodded her agreement. She glanced over to make sure their Mama Nodoka wasn’t close enough to hear (or the other two, though Nabiki glanced at them with a broad grin even as she rejoined the mothers’ resumed conversation), then murmured, “Just remember that water is the great anti-lubricant.”

“There you go!” Haruka grabbed Raven and Rei’s hands, pulling them around the resumed volleyball game and toward the waterline, her amused lover following. “Come on, everyone, let’s get wet!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! Of the series, not just the story. Unlike some of my other series, I have no ideas for a sequel even if there weren't other stories I want to focus on more. Still, it's been a fun ride. If anyone wants to write their own sequel feel free, just please let me know so I can check it out.
> 
> Going forward, once I finish up _The Unexpected Hobbit_ (two or three more chapters), I've decided to focus on _Maneuvering for Position_ and _The Youxia Bond_. I considered going with _The Brothers' War_ instead of TYB, so that at least one of my current stories wouldn't be "E." But with two "E" stories outside of my _Ranma, the Naïve Succubus_ series and one non-"E," I'm going to end up with two simultaneous "E" stories one way or the other. So I might as well stagger them.
> 
> The chapter title comes from the song by Gaelic Storm, more for its sense of childhood nostalgia as anything else.
> 
> Oh, and the time travel devices were time bubbles owned by the Legion of Superheroes, in current continuity (as far as I know) the team from the 30th century that visited, then recruited, Clark Kent before he became Superman. So yes, there was (or will be) a Superboy.


End file.
